The Good, Bad and Ugly: Adversity Strikes the Villa Engine Room
With Aston Villa poised perfectly to strike at the top of the table and advance in Europe, fate’s fickle hand has decided that poor refereeing, financial restrictions, and XG media pressure weren’t enough to contend with, so it has thrown a plague of injuries to key players into the mix. Despite this, Emery and Villa continue to chart a path to glory.
The Good
After the defeat against Everton and the injury news to John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara that followed, the week leading up to the Fenerbahçe and Newcastle trips had everyone wondering if the wheels had fallen off.
You could be forgiven for thinking that one defeat could quickly spiral into three with two hostile environments against teams much stronger than Everton on paper.
This season’s Aston Villa are made of sterner stuff, and after setbacks, they have always responded. This time with two complete away performances.
Firstly, they made a fearsome-looking Fenerbahçe side look very ordinary, and if anything, the single-goal defeat flattered the hospitable Turkish side as Villa exposed their naive defending, and ex-Villans Jhon Duran and Marco Asensio were bullied by the returning Tyrone Mings.
That turned out to be good practice for a trip to one of Villa’s most daunting venues, St James’ Park.
Without a win in 21 years, again, you’d be forgiven for expecting the worst, but from the moment Emi Martinez kept out Sandro Tonali’s first-minute chance, Villa were never in real danger.
The win with goals from Buendia and Watkins wiped out the disappointing Everton loss and set Villa up for the rest of the week. Surely there would be no more bad injury news?
Villain of the Week – Emiliano Buendia
He’s five foot seven, he’s football heaven…
When Buendia’s creative mind isn’t overcomplicating his next pass, he’s one of Emery’s most effective players.
Already with more goal involvements than any previous season in claret and blue, with seven goals and four assists, Buendia’s renaissance could not have been predicted, but as Unai Emery said, ‘He is playing angry to get to his best.’
With other players missing, the one-time record signing is poised to repay the fee if he keeps up to his current level.
The Bad
Bad things come in threes, they say. Well, I wish they didn’t.
Aston Villa’s engine, the midfield, probably the strongest collective in the Premier League when all available, has been decimated by three big injuries in three weeks.
First, Boubacar Kamara somehow injured his knee badly enough to be out for the remainder of the season to keep his record of never making it to thirty league appearances in a season.
While the tackle from Joao Palhinha was a cynical foul, it was a freak that it managed to injure Kamara so badly.
Then came John McGinn, a block tackle in the early stages of the Everton game later required minor surgery that will keep the Villa captain out for six weeks minimum.
Finally, and probably most frustratingly, Youri Tielemans was the victim of a proper bad tackle from Newcastle’s Lewis Miley that wasn’t even punished with a free kick. In fact, the referee made Tielemans get to his feet and carry on. His reward? Six weeks plus on the sidelines unless a second scan sees a miracle.
Aston Villa are the most fouled team in the Premier League so far this season, and by some distance, with 308 fouls received to Chelsea’s 266 in second place.
While Kamara and McGinn were unlucky, the fact that Miley’s tackle from behind didn’t even result in a free kick was typical of recent decisions needing to be of a higher bar to get given in Villa’s favour.
For the most fouled team in the league also not to have been awarded a penalty, surely must be an anomaly as well.
Already, their opponents should have been reduced to ten men on two occasions against Wolves and away at Arsenal and possibly a third time with Garner against Everton escaping a blatant second yellow card.
While these ultimately tend to even out over the course of a season, the leniency Jarred Gillett showed to the Newcastle midfielders, especially Joelinton, leads to desperation and dangerous tackles that injure players.
It’s a contact sport, but importantly, all sides must be penalised equally. An early card or two for Newcastle’s midfield, and Miley might not have had the freedom to dive in on Tielemans.
Follow and listen to the MOMS podcast on Spotify
The Ugly
In spite of the ugly situation Villa’s midfield find themselves in, there are reinforcements on the horizon.
While not everyone’s first choice, the returning trio of Leon Bailey, Tammy Abraham, and, most surprisingly, Douglas Luiz, have appeared out of the shadows of Villa’s past to save the day.
If you had asked any Villa fan for their dream window, these three homecoming players would have garnered an ugly response, but here we are, and in dire straits, you turn to what you know.
Leon Bailey has come back from a hopeless spell at Roma and, in his cameo against Newcastle, actually put in a decent shift, even defending and tracking back more than most remembered him doing.
Considering he already belongs to Aston Villa, it made sense to bring him back to add another body.
The same goes for the imminent arrival of Douglas Luiz, back from Juventus via a brief spell in Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest dungeon.
Luiz was allowed to leave because Villa had bedded in Tielemans as his replacement, and it was felt that Luiz had hit a ceiling at Villa. While ironic, it makes sense that with Tielemans out, you go back to what you know works and get Luiz in as a short-term sticking plaster.
The rumoured option to buy could work out for all parties, but for a loan to the end of the season, he should be enough to temporarily fill the Tielemans-shaped hole.
Then, finally, the third avenger, Tammy Abraham.
The last Villa striker to score over 20 league goals in a season, in the 2018-2019 Championship promotion, is the back-up or competition for the misfiring Ollie Watkins, who will either replace or complement the current lone front man.
While he will be remembered for missing his fair share of big chances, an older, more mature Abraham could be the alternative striker that gets Villa over the line this season and, along with Luiz, has a better penalty record than the rest of the Villa squad put together.
If these three prodigal sons pull Villa out of their ugly injury crisis, then this could turn out to be the season all three of them sort out their unfinished business in claret and blue.
UTV
Get a cracking deal on NordVPN with four months FREE & a 30 days money-back guarantee here: nordvpn.com/moms
Follow Phil on X/Twitter here – @prsgame
Follow MOMS on Twitter/X & Facebook & Threads & Bluesky & Spotify