Great For a Neutral, Horrifying For A Villa Fan – Some Players Should Be Ashamed – Match Stats

After a somewhat lengthy break in our fixture calendar, Aston Villa were back in action tonight as we welcomed Marcelo Bielsa and his Leeds United side to Villa Park.

There is a little bit of history between the two sides in recent years but we put in a lively start and arguably should’ve given ourselves the advantage ahead of the five minute mark, although Tyrone Mings did have a good header ahead of that.

Typically they then went down the other end and caught us knapping in the ninth minute to take the lead themselves. It more than stunted our momentum and we were living a bit dangerously at this point.

We eventually steadied and got ourselves back at the races and we had some good openings that we just couldn’t nail with the final ball, and Mings had a real guilt edged chance on the 25 minute mark but he steered his header wide.

It was going to be one of these days unless we improved further – not least when they cannoned an effort off the crossbar.

Magic man Philippe Coutinho made the next headline as he rifled in a Matty Cash cross following a very neat turn in the box – game on…hopefully. And it was.

A short time after the leveller we broke again and following a great ball from Coutinho, Jacob Ramsey was through and our Academy graduate made no mistake. 2-1 and stick that in the bucket.

We weren’t finished though, and we were heading safely into the break at 3-1 as Ramsey completed his brace as Coutinho helped himself to another assist. But this is Villa, Leeds soon had a second as another cock up in the box saw James grab his second of the night.

It should’ve been 4-2 but Lucas Digne dragged his late effort narrowly wide and I thought there was a decent shout for a pen as well.

Oh well, half time. What would happen next?

Well, we again started brightly and a nice freekick routine a few minutes in almost brought a reward and Ollie Watkins was almost in from the resulting corner. It was going to take a brave person to predict this half after what we’d just seen though.

After an innocuous injury to Emi Buendia, Watkins almost nipped in but he wasn’t quite quick enough. This was shaping up to me more of a niggly end to end half though and it was getting to the point where the referee probably needed to make a mark as the visitors were getting rather robust with their efforts.

But we again switched off at the back and one of our worst defensive performances of the season saw us head into a six goal game as they got the leveller.

It then looked to get worse as Coutinho looked to pull something, although thankfully he was able to carry on for a bit and somehow Ezri Konsa got booked for being dragged down?

You had to question what we’d worked on during the break given this performance as it simply wasn’t good enough or up to standard and very disappointingly, there seemed little idea how to change things from the bench unless we were reacting to further potential injuries – which was another worry in itself given how easily players seemed to strain themselves.

To top things off as the game was heading for a draw Konsa decided to run straight at their goalkeeper and then plant his elbow around his head like a complete and utter child in a complete nothing moment of play.

Night folks….training tomorrow morning isn’t as option, I’d have them working through the night.

Aston Villa				Leeds United
Coutinho (30), J Ramsey (38, 43)				James (9, 45+2), Llorente (63)
Martinez				Meslier
Cash				Ayling
Konsa				Llorente
Mings				Struijk
Digne				Dallas
McGinn				Raphinha
Douglas Luiz				Koch
J Ramsey			89	Rodrigo
Buendia			59	Klich			85
Watkins				Harrison
Coutinho			78	James
Substitutes
Sanson				Forshaw			85
Chambers			89	Roberts
Young			78	Klaesson
Ings				Bate
Olsen				Gelhardt
Hause				Hjelde
Carney Chukwuemeka			59	McKinstry
Chrisene				Shackleton
Iroegbunam				Kenneh

Game Statistics
12	Goal attempts	16
4	On Target	8
6	Corners	11
11	Fouls	9
2	Yellow Cards	3
1	Red Cards	0
39	%	61