With an unexpected victory over Crystal Palace in our last game, Aston Villa had some small hope of now avoiding relegation from the Premier League but it hinged on tonight’s visit to Goodison Park to face Everton.
It was quite a dull game, but we certainly had the better chances across the game but sadly as we headed into the final 20 minutes of the tie, we hadn’t managed a single shot on target – and neither had the hosts.
And then, as if by magic, Ezri Konsa converted Hourihane’s ball in and it was 1-0.
It should’ve been 2-0 but Anwar El Ghazi missed when it was easier to score and so, of course, the inevitable happened, we sat back and Everton got the leveller with three minutes to go on the clock.
Ho hum – another great opportunity blown. It really is the hope that kills you.
Everton Unused Substitutes:
Baines, Sidibe, Stekelenburg, Neves Virginia.
Unused Aston Villa Substitutes:
Lansbury, Nakamba, Jota, Guilbert, Nyland, Vassilev, Hayden.
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Moss 1, Villa Nowt -United Deserve The Win #whimper – Match Stats
Goodison Park
Premier League Version Fudge
16/07/2020 7:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Anthony Taylor
| Everton | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walcott (87) | Konsa (72) | ||||||
| Pickford | Reina | ||||||
| Coleman | Elmohamady | ||||||
| Keane | Konsa | ||||||
| Holgate | 16 | Mings | |||||
| Digne | Targett | ||||||
| Iwobi | 62 | McGinn | |||||
| Davies | 73 | Douglas Luiz | |||||
| Andre Gomes | Hourihane | ||||||
| Bernard | 62 | Trezeguet | 64 | ||||
| Calvert-Lewin | Samatta | 64 | |||||
| Richarlison | 73 | Grealish | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Branthwaite | 16 | El Ghazi | 64 | ||||
| Walcott | 62 | Davis | 64 | ||||
| Gordon | 62 | ||||||
| Kean | 73 | ||||||
| Sigurdsson | 73 | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 9 | Goal attempts | 15 |
| 1 | On Target | 1 |
| 5 | Corners | 5 |
| 15 | Fouls | 13 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 55 | % | 45 |
So depressingly predictable.
El Ghazi continues to underwhelm in an utterly forgetful season. I understand his agent is looking for other PL interest should be go down – best of luck mate, but I bet we end up being stuck with him.
Cannot keep a clean sheet on our travels for love nor money. No surprise then when we crumbled yet again with minutes to go.
The real annoyance lies in the fact that, despite all our shortcomings, we have enough other poor sides around us to leave the door open for our survival. Even now, two wins and we might still and probably will escape. Question is, can we pull it out of the fire?
The story of Villa’s season is that we are a team of bottlers. This is the factor that will most likely lead to us being relegated. If one looks at the 36 games Villa have played, Villa have been competitive in most but have lost many points due to someone bottling it. Today it was El Ghazi, another day it was Engel, another day Heaton and Luiz etc. Watford and West Ham are no better than us but are not bottlers. When they needed a result they pulled it off. Its a bit unfair to blame EL Ghazi when the mistakes were numerous over the season, Three costly ones come to mind: Firstly the home game with Bournmouth when we gifted them 2 goals through stupid errors. Secondly the away game with Watford when we were losing 1-0 and they played with ten men and we allowed them to score another two goals and finally, the home game with West Ham when they played with 10 men for 65% of the game and we couldn’t score.
Theoretically we could win both games left but I suspect we are capable of bottling at least one of them.