1 Shot, 1 Key Pass & 3 Tackles - Villa Star Was Back To His Best Against City But Was He Your MotM

For the opening 45 minutes, Aston Villa fans probably got pretty much what they had expected on Wednesday evening as we welcomed Pep Guardiola’s side to Villa Park.

It was an incredibly poor start, riddled with avoidable errors and the kind of lack of confidence we shouldn’t have expected after back to back wins. However, for how bad we were, City’s dominance wasn’t rewarded until we handed them a goal – just at the point we were really steadying ourselves and beginning to grow into the game. It was then get to half time at only 1-0 and a quick City release undone the hard work we had put in and two minutes before the break it was 2-0.

There can’t have been many who weren’t expecting a collapse in the second half, but what we got was the polar opposite, hugely refreshing and has raised expectations for the future as new head coach Steven Gerrard properly gets his message across.

We started brightly, we were forcing the game, we were getting into them instead of standing off and we’d stopped playing suicide balls in our own six yard box. 47 in, Ollie Watkins connected with a Douglas Luiz corner and we were back in the game. The real surprise was we continued with that organisation, passion and bravery for almost the whole half and whilst the visitors were still in control, we had them rattled and they were down to timewasting and ‘tactical fouls’ to try and disrupt our momentum. Proof of them being rattled and worried about a leveller saw Pep resort to bringing Jack on to try and change the narrative – annoyingly it worked, the players sat off him, and he just helped tippy tappy time away on the wing, even though there wasn’t a real attempt to score.

The penalty shout was a reasonable call for us, and with Gabriel Jesus’ comical miss, they cancel each other out. But a deserved point was there for the taking come the end of the second half performance, but Carney Chukwuemeka saw his effort well saved.

More negatives than positives first half. Second half major and massive positives, with very few negatives. Once we sorted ourselves out, we again saw good performances from John McGinn and Marvelous Nakamba. Matt Targett continues to come on leaps and bounds again, as are Matty Cash, Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa. Ollie Watkins was back to his absolute – lead the line, chase and battle for everything – best. Douglas Luiz was almost reborn dictating play in midfield. It was Emi Buendia’s best half yet, showing everything he has to offer, and we even saw what Morgan Sanson could be capable of – there was a brief mention of Sid Cowans from Vital Villa Forum member Bonker and I can sort of see it.

At 65ish minutes, I still wasn’t going to do a Man of the Match for this one, but given the ending, I did do what I hope is a one off – a Man of the Half.

Statistics website had Ollie top with a rating of 7.65, with Douglas Luiz (7.60), John McGinn (7.11), Emi Martinez (6.74) and Matty Cash (6.57) completing the top five.