I can’t have been the only Aston Villa fan who expected a bit of a late Wednesday night as we played another United States based friendly, this time against fellow English side Fulham. However, owing to the weather, a late Wednesday night turned into a very early Thursday morning for any fans who stuck with it to the final whistle.
Unai Emery: "Overall, I am happy with the result, happy with different players, as well, trying to practice some different ways tactically." 👊 pic.twitter.com/G4AD3VyFUT
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) July 27, 2023
In any event, a 2-0 win can’t be sniffed at but more importantly it was better minutes back into the players’ tank and it was quite a solid first half display again. Naturally some players were sharper than others and performed better, and Jaden Philogene-Bidace looked very impressive to me, and he took his late first half goal well. The second half was a bit more of a mixed bag, but new signing Moussa Diaby finished nicely in the second period with the game coming to a close.
The margin of victory should probably have been higher, but Cameron Archer missed his chance from the penalty spot in the first period, but for me at least, on another day the keeper goes the other way and doesn’t get it.
Aston Villa:
Olsen (MartÃnez 46), Konsa (Chambers 69), Carlos (Cash 46), Torres (Mings 49), Digne (Revan 61), Kamara (Luiz 46), Tielemans, Philogene (Kellyman 61), McGinn (Diaby 46), BuendÃa (Coutinho 61), Archer (Watkins 61).
Subs: Marschall, Young.
Highlights and the goals can be found by Clicking Here for anyone yet to catch up on the action.
Despite a poorer second half, the game again showed that the players are more than taking on board Emery’s pre season demands when it comes to our play, and even in a more scrappy final 45, apart from odd moments, we weren’t really hanging on or in any real danger – we had just run out of some steam and the substitutes had broken our original flow.
Youri Tielemans: "We had some really good times in the game, scored two goals, didn't concede, so it's really positive looking forward." 🙌 pic.twitter.com/VnX29JT0Su
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) July 27, 2023
There were certainly more positives than negatives to take again, and as Emery spoke to the Official Site that was at the forefront of his mind – even though clearly he again wanted further improvements.
“There were some very good things, one of them is that Jaden scored and a good goal as well for Moussa Diaby. We shared minutes with different players and tried to do something different, tactically, with Ezri Konsa. We didn’t control the game like we wanted and we lost more ball than we have to to control the match. Overall, I’m happy with the result, with different players and practicing in different ways tactically. We have to continue being positive.”
Our US tour comes to an end when we face Brentford in Washington DC on Sunday and Emery will certainly be looking for a bit more consistency in performance over the next few games when changes are made to the line up given the schedule we face this year with Europe on the cards.
