The Lion Gives A Little Growl As Villa Finally Take Three Points – Match Stats
With relegation an almost certainty now, Aston Villa went into Sunday’s clash with Crystal Palace looking for a miracle.
We may have got one as they had an early goal disallowed for handball or a foul on the keeper or VAR overturned the nonsense freekick about ten minutes too late – whatever the reason their opening goal was scrubbed off and most of us felt it was revenge for the tie at Selhurst Park, as there’s no way that was handball.
The game wasn’t great, but we did edge our noses in front just ahead of the break as Trezeguet snuck up at the back post and buried Hourihane’s freekick deep into stoppage time. Palace weren’t out of it though, by any stretch.
Second half was much the same, with a quick start from both and we were awarded a penalty for the lightest of touches on Jack Grealish – VAR, I presume, decided he made too much of a meal of it and overturned the decision. But fans will be mixed on that, there was contact but the question is, enough contact and did it matter whose boot was on top?
We didn’t have much time to debate that though as just ahead of the hour mark, another Hourihane delivery saw Trezeguet double our advantage and a few minutes later, Hourihane could’ve had one of his own but the keeper pulled off a nice save.
What had happened to the old Villa? We were playing quite well now!
VAR still cheated us out of a penalty though with a blatant handball in the box that was curiously unseen (clear and obvious anyone?).
And it could’ve been more but somehow Trez and Davis conspired to miss the ball, in fact, it looked like Trez forgot to move his feet and Davis fell over it? We wouldn’t have been laughing had it not been 2-0!
A much needed but unexpected victory with better positives from the performance and our overall play. We seemed dead and buried, we’d blown the gifts we had been given by other sides, but we’ve eeked out some hope from somewhere and we’ve finally shown some real fight.
Is it too little, too late and will the hope kill us?
Tune in to the next instalment on Thursday when we face Everton.
Unused Aston Villa Substitutes:
Lansbury, Steer, Jota, Guilbert, Nyland.
Unused Palace Substitutes:
Hennessey, Kelly, Woods, Mitchell, Pierrick.
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