Villa Survive Late Palace Scare To Take Gerrard’s Second Win – Match Stats
It was a good old 3pm Saturday kick off for Aston Villa fans today as new head coach Steven Gerrard took charge of his second game and he was looking to make it back to back victories against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park following his dug out debut win against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Palace have started well under Patrick Vieira, so it was set to be a tough second game for Gerrard but it was a much improved showing over all and even though the hosts had more of the ball from the first whistle, we contained them well and had the overall greater chances across the 90 minutes.
A tweaked Villa side gave themselves a cushion early in the 15th minute as Ashley Young set up Matt Targett to open the scoring, and although we threatened to increase our advantage we had to wait until very late on in the game and with four minutes remaining on the clock, Anwar El Ghazi fed John Meatball McGinn to make it two.
It was quite a late surge from both sides as the game came to a close, and Palace picked up a consolation goal five minutes into stoppage time, but the three points were ours and Gerrard has got himself on a little bit of a roll here.
Even a VAR decision went our way today – remember to say thank you Dougie.
Onto the next one and long may it continue.
Palace MotM
