With improved Aston Villa performances in our last two games against West Bromwich Albion and Everton, everyone is hoping that small bit of momentum will make a massive difference as we went into a tough tie against Manchester United earlier today.
With Ole Gunnar Solskjaer again proving himself a parody of everything that is wrong with victim managers in the game, there’s more than one reason why fans want revenge today.
Little old muggins here got the kick off time wrong so I only arrived at the half hour mark, and blimey we were winning and it seemed Bertie Traore had his trickery boots on again – although the less said about some of his defensive work remains for the better.
United were naturally more on top in the game, but as per usual they had a slight advantage called the idiot referee who seemed determined not to show them a single yellow card. But despite a clear elbow on Ezri Konsa, he couldn’t whip the card out quick enough for Ollie Watkins for being a fraction of a second late on slab head.
At the break it was a worthy lead though. Bertie’s goal was a corker and we were defending well and on the odd occasions they did get through, Emi Martinez was more than up to the task.
So, the endless Villa question – was that our good half? And when would United get their obligatory penalty?
Well, we didn’t have to wait long. The softest of challenges from Douglas Luiz saw Paul Pogba go down easier than a you know what, and Pernandes buries their obligatory chance.
A poor moment from Tyrone Mings and United had the lead a few minutes later, although Emi should really be saving that. United really should’ve been down to ten men not long after as Marcus Rashford kicked out twice at Ezri – but naturally, nothing from the referee or VAR.
We weren’t out of this though as we continued to have a couple of good attacks, but you more than got the feeling it wouldn’t be our day now – especially as a clear handball in the box by Greenwood didn’t seem to even get a review!
Dean Smith rolled the dice and we got to see Wesley and Keinan Davis add some muscle up top and we had some great chances with the added punch up top and the visitors were really under some pressure, but whether we’d equalise or concede a third on the break was the next question – so it was inevitably concede the third.
The idiot in charge wasn’t finished yet though, Ollie went through and it was a stonewaller of a penalty, but this complete cockerill decided he’d dived and with a second yellow, he was off. No reference to VAR again, typically.
But for all the anger at Kavanagh’s antics, bottom line – we beat ourselves again and were punished for silly, avoidable errors and not being composed enough when taking our own chances.
But that’s a tough one to take.
Villa Park
Premier League
9/05/2021 3:05 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
| Aston Villa | Manchester United | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traore (24) | Bruno Penandes (pen 52), Greenwood (56), Cavani (87) | ||||||
| Martinez | Henderson | ||||||
| Cash | Wan-Bissaka | ||||||
| Konsa | Lindelof | ||||||
| Mings | Maguire | 78 | |||||
| Targett | Shaw | ||||||
| Traore | Greenwood | 65 | |||||
| McGinn | McTominay | ||||||
| Barkley | 77 | Bruno Fernandes | 86 | ||||
| Douglas Luiz | 65 | Fred | |||||
| El Ghazi | 77 | Pogba | |||||
| Watkins | Rashford | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Heaton | De Gea | ||||||
| Wesley | 77 | Bailly | 78 | ||||
| Nakamba | Cavani | 65 | |||||
| Elmohamady | Mata | ||||||
| Hause | Telles | ||||||
| Davis | 77 | Matic | 86 | ||||
| Ramsey | 65 | Williams | |||||
| Philogene-Bidace | van de Beek | ||||||
| Chukwuemeka | Tuanzebe | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 18 |
| 5 | On Target | 7 |
| 5 | Corners | 6 |
| 13 | Fouls | 18 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 1 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 41 | % | 59 |