Errors Again Cost Villa, But There Are Leicester Positives – Match Stats

Aston Villa fans have seen plenty of improvements since Unai Emery walked through the door as Steven Gerrard’s replacement, and although performances as a whole can obviously improve further, we now have tactics, a backbone, some greater confidence and we have picked up some very good results in the last few weeks.

In fact, going into today’s clash with Leicester City, only Mikel Arteta’s league leading Arsenal side had picked up more points than we had since proper footy returned following the end of the World Cup.

It was certainly a lively first half and nine minutes in we had the lead through Ollie Watkins as he capitalised on Emi Buendia hitting the woodwork. Leicester quickly levelled but just after the half hour mark, Harry Souttar deflected a Watkins shot into the back of the net to restore our advantage.

That’s where it all went a little bit wrong, and our Villa Park visitors scored twice before the break, leaving us with plenty of work to do.

Second half we were even more on top and we even had the ball in the back of the net again, but Philippe Coutinho’s effort was ruled offside. Despite good further efforts it just wasn’t going to fall our way and unfortunately Leicester added a fourth to make themselves comfortable with eleven minutes left on the clock.

A mix of avoidable errors, and poor finishing again cost us at least a share of the spoils and in fairness, it wouldn’t have taken much for the game to have turned out very differently, but we just didn’t seem to have that luck today as arguably Watkins and Buendia each had another chance of their own that should’ve been buried.

Still a solid start to life under Emery and whisper it quietly, but a possible European place is not out of the realms of possibility and that just shows how much results have improved. We are still very much a work in progress though, and Emery will know that.

Aston Villa				Leicester City
Watkins (9), Souttar (og 32)				Maddison (12), Iheanacho (41), Cardosa Lemos Martins (45+2), Praet (79)
Martinez				Ward
A Young			59	Castagne
Konsa				Souttar
Mings				Faes
Digne			45	Kristiansen			81
J Ramsey			45	Tielemans
Kamara			82	Dewsbury-Hall			67
Douglas Luiz				Cardoso Lemos Martins			83
Buendia				Maddison			67
Bailey			82	Barnes
Watkins				Iheanacho			67
Substitutes
Cash			59	Soyuncu			83
McGinn				Vardy			67
Moreno			45	Daka
Chambers				Mendy			67
Duran			82	Praet			67
Coutinho			45	Iversen
Olsen				Thomas			81
Dendoncker			82	Brunt
Sinisalo				Marcal-Madivadua

Game Statistics
19	Goal attempts	9
4	On Target	5
11	Corners	3
10	Fouls	10
0	Yellow Cards	3
0	Red Cards	0
63	%	37