Aston Villa have achieved some incredible things under Unai Emery but their Premier League form is of some concern. Their tightrope tactics are not working.
Fair play to Steven Gerrard for continuing to do his utmost to vindicate an Aston Villa decision which needed no justifying, even at the expense of whatever might remain of his coaching aspirations.
“I have to take that responsibility on my shoulders,” he said as Al-Ettifaq slipped to a fourth defeat in six games, leaving them mired in mid-table at best with seemingly another season wasted.
That run includes as many wins as Villa have mustered in their last five Premier League games; Unai Emery may have been born in and moulded by the fixture grind which comes with European competition but many of these players are still struggling having only recently merely adopted it.
And the manager cannot be absolved of blame for this chastening afternoon. Villa do not lose often under Emery but their tightrope tactical approach is such that when they are beaten it tends to be a capitulation: last season was bookended by 5-1 and 5-0 thrashings by Newcastle and Crystal Palace, while they shipped four goals at home to Spurs in March.
The extra travel will at least afford time for introspection because Villa got this wrong. They were curiously passive, scored a fortunate goal, were undone by individual mistakes and never really felt in control even when leading or being level for most of the game.
The Morgan Rogers opener was not as undeserved or against the run of play as the commentary team suggested. Both teams had managed a dozen shots by that point and Villa had held their own. Amadou Onana was very good and the visitors were exceptionally organised.
But at the end of the first half came a spoiler: a poor choice of pass from Pau Torres put Onana under pressure and Pape Matar Sarr capitalised to create a shooting chance.
That was precisely how the third goal materialised and buried within Dominic Solanke’s second was another key difference between the teams. While Ange Postecoglou continued his recent toxic relationship with substitutions by making influential changes yet again, Emery’s alterations were sub-optimal.
Richarlison assisted one goal, Ben Davies made a vital interception leading to another, Yves Bissouma was excellent in keeping on the pressure and James Maddison scored a sublime free-kick. That sort of impact from the bench is game-changing. None of Villa’s subs worked, with Jhon Duran’s magic seemingly wearing off and their problems down the right only exacerbated by Matty Cash’s injury.
He is not the best option down that side for a Champions League team but the alternatives seem worse.
For Emery, the worry will be that a rare midweek rest for his usual starters in the Carabao Cup defeat to Crystal Palace backfired. They have generally handled that turnaround well with some brilliant results after European excursions; this was a miserable experience beyond exploiting Tottenham’s set-piece weakness, which represented their only shot on target all game.
Spurs being Spurs, they have obviously lurched from handing Crystal Palace their first Premier League win of the season to beating two Champions League teams in the space of five days.
As for Villa, they now have the worst defensive record in the top half and only seven clubs have fewer points in the last five matches. A brief glance at their former manager’s current situation suggests things could be rather worse but their position as Premier League glass-ceiling smashers is precarious and there are Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth-shaped clubs waiting to take their place. This sort of performance won’t have deterred them.
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