Villains of piece need to fly at the Emirates
VILLA supporters will have returned to work this week still perplexed as to how their side managed to toss away three points against Wolves.
Cruising at 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go, soft goals from Romain Saiss, Conor Coady and a deflected Ruben Neves free-kick stunned Villa Park, leaving head coach Dean Smith almost lost for words in his post-match press conference.
We pick apart where it all went wrong and what needs to be done at Arsenal on Friday night.
The blame game
There was plenty of finger-pointing with the brunt of the blame aimed at Smith and his substitutions.
Smith defended his decisions, revealing Emi Buendia had asked to come off, Douglas Luiz looked leggy after his 5,000-mile flight on Friday and Matty Cash picked up a dead leg, with the boss making like-for-like changes.
The subs did upset Villa’s rhythm but had nothing to do with Wolves’ fightback, other than arguably Jacob Ramsey’s cheap foul on Adama Traore for Neves’ killer free-kick, which took a wicked deflection off Matt Targett.
Smith was rightly critical of Villa’s defensive output from Wolves’ setpieces. First, it was Ollie Watkins with a poor clearance, which allowed Wolves to work another ball into the box before Daniel Podence peeled off Danny Ings to fire across to Saiss for 2-1. The equaliser was far worse, though, with Watkins appearing to duck out of a clearance, Leander Dendoncker out-manning Targett to the ball before Axel Tuanzebe was too tired to clear as Coady trickled the ball home. It was a catalogue of errors, with nobody in a Villa shirt taking responsibility.
Watkins woe
He has so far looked a shadow of his former self for large parts this season.
His attacking output was non-existent other than seeing a shot blocked, which John McGinn took full advantage of. Strike partner Ings touched the ball just 24 times compared to Watkins (41), yet it was the former who bagged his third goal of the campaign while he should have scored another after being slipped in by Buendia.
In previous weeks, Watkins has been wasteful while his position in the team is slowly being questioned, especially if Ings keeps scoring.
Smith has said time and time again he doesn’t see Watkins playing out wide as he did at Brentford but, with Villa likely to change their system in the coming weeks, there isn’t scope to play two up front so who drops out should, say, Leon Bailey come in?
We’ve got McGinn...
He has been Villa’s standout player thus far. The Scot rolled Saiss before teeing up Ings with an inch-perfect cross while, 20 minutes later, he hit one home and true via Neves’ foot before sprinting towards the Holte
End. McGinn is playing on a different level to most of his team-mates and it’s up to others to step up if Villa have aspirations of cracking European places. He made four key passes, seven crosses and four successful tackles to back up his assist and goal showing.
Getting back on track
A big reaction is needed on Friday when Villa travel to Arsenal. This result made it back-to-back defeats for the first time since April.
It has been 15 months since Villa lost three on the spin. It has been such an up-and-down eight-game start, with fans desperate to see the likes of Bailey, Morgan Sanson and Bertrand Traore shake off their injuries to give Villa real impetus going forward.
A win at the Emirates would really lift the mood. It is a crucial period for Smith and his side as we are three games away from the next international break and, if results aren’t forthcoming, big questions need to be asked as to which direction the club wants to be going in.