More Questions Than Answers As A Lacklustre Villa Drop Out The Cup – Match Stats
Another Thursday and another fixture for Aston Villa – this time it’s the EFL Cup fourth round tie against Stoke City and unfortunately, we didn’t welcome former skipper James Chester back to Villa Park as he wasn’t in the squad.
Head coach Dean Smith predictably rotated the squad again and it was the same selection that saw us through to this round following victory over Bristol City the other week.
We had more of the ball but Stoke proved to be tougher opposition than we maybe expected given our slower start and 26 minutes in, they had the lead. We had chances to be back on level terms by the break, but they went begging – particular Keinan Davis’s late effort, so all eyes to the second half.
Our chance creation was arguably improved and Anwar El Ghazi really should’ve found himself on the score sheet (possibly twice) and with the introduction of Ollie Watkins we looked more dangerous and he drew a good save himself – but with 15 minutes to go, we were still chasing.
1-0 it finished…some realism back about our strength in depth with few positives to take – if anything just a few more questions about whether some of these players should be offloaded whilst the window is open.
Manchester United beat us to the inaugural Prem title in 1992/93, but what was the score when we travelled to Old Trafford?
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