Mark Oldacres
Aston Villa fell to their third defeat of the young season at the hands of Crystal Palace on Saturday, at the end of one of the most frustrating games to watch in recent memory. I’ll be doing the thankless task of analysing what went wrong during a chaotic 90 minutes at Selhurst Park.
The Headlines
Lost the Battle and the War
Roy Hodgson gave Villa a taste of what he served up at Old Trafford a week earlier, as his side turned the match into a battle which they were plainly more determined to win. The stats tell the story as Villa recovered the ball less, won fewer defensive duels (49%) and fewer challenges (42%) than in the previous two matches, as well as committing more fouls (15) than they have all season. Simply put; Villa didn’t handle the scrappy nature of the game and weren’t in control of the flow of the contest.
In the first half especially, Dean Smith’s side struggled to enforce their style of play. Possession seemed rudderless; with the ball spending too much time at the feet of defenders rather than with Villa’s playmakers, and with only one counter attack mustered (the lowest all season), it was a truly nondescript performance from the Villans.
There was also a disappointing level of sloppiness to Villa’s play, as the defence in particular gave the ball away far too often without much prompting, allowing the lively Selhurst Park crowd to come into play. Tyrone Mings, Bjorn Engels and Frederic Guilbert all won fewer defensive duels than in any other game so far, with Engels and Guilbert also losing the ball more often than they had done in their previous outings. This match felt like the reverse of Villa’s energetic showing against the Toffees just eight days earlier; Crystal Palace just wanted it a little bit more than Villa.
As we will discuss later, Dean Smith’s side didn’t get the rub of the green on Saturday; but that doesn’t mask the fact that this was Villa’s worst performance of the season.
The Stranded Striker
A concerning theme continued on Saturday, as Wesley was once again left isolated for much of the afternoon. Wes had fewer total actions in the game (37) than in any other match and received just five (five!) passes, which significantly limited Villa’s ability to gain a foothold in the contest. I see this as Dean Smith’s biggest problem and something needs to be done, perhaps pushing Jack Grealish further forward into a true ‘10’ position would help to provide better service to Villa’s big number 9. As illustrated by his excellent performance against Everton, Villa have to find a way to get the ball to Wesley’s feet more frequently; he’s far too talented to have such a miniscule involvement as he did against Palace.
Kevin-No-Mates
Make no mistake, Villa were poor on Saturday and on the balance of play deserved nothing from the game, illustrated by an expected goals 0.22 (Villa’s lowest all season) compared to Palace’s 1.97 and an average shot distance of 25 yards, (Villa’s highest all season). However, Villa scored a well worked, legitimate goal in the dying seconds and should have escaped London with a point, but for one of the most mystifying, infuriatingly nonsensical refereeing decisions I’ve ever witnessed.
The nitty gritty of the decision has been analysed to death, but the most head scratching element is how on earth the referee could be so sure in his mind that Grealish dived, that he couldn’t bear to wait a second or two to blow his whistle, thus giving VAR no chance of overturning the incorrect decision. The only explanation for that is that Kevin Friend was looking for a dive.
Friend had a dreadfully inconsistent game as Villa players were booked for seemingly every infringement, with his shocking decision in the final seconds acting as the tip of the iceberg as he cost Villa a valuable and confidence-building point going into the international break, as well as depriving Henri Lansbury of a feeling of redemption after his stop-start career at Villa so far. In short, this was refereeing malpractice and made the result excruciating to stomach, never mind write a report about!
Extra Time
- Neil Taylor and Trezeguet were unable to negate Wilfried Zaha in the same way they restricted Richarlison, as the Ivory Coast winger ran the show at times. The load became too much to carry for Taylor once Trezeguet was given his marching orders, which came at a brutal time after Villa had started the second half brightly.
- Regarding Trezeguet’s sending off; the two yellow cards were acceptable in isolation but I don’t believe those two combined challenges warranted a red card, there was no malice in either of them.
- Ending on a high note, Keinan Davis was one of the few bright spots for Villa; the young forward impresses me every time I watch him play, KD will provide genuine competition for Wesley and I’m delighted that Dean Smith kept him around, rather than sending him out on loan. He has all the attributes to succeed; pace, strength, great hold up play and an underrated ability to beat a man with the ball at his feet, if he becomes a more consistent finisher, Davis can succeed in the Premier League.
The Villa Ramble 
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