With three Premier League debuts for Aston Villa signings Emi Martinez, Matty Cash and Ollie Watkins on Monday night, whilst there is plenty of room for improvement in our overall play given the performance against Sheffield United, there were plenty of positives to take from the game.
We were edging the match and creating chances before they went down to ten men and the reality is it should’ve been a 2-0 or 3-0 victory at least, but whether it was a touch of being rusty, early lack of composure and the element of luck and understanding that comes with time, we were worthy of the three points and our victory.
Emiliano Martinez at full-time after a clean sheet & penalty save on his debut for Villa 🙏@emimartinezz1 pic.twitter.com/rIKDj4CYf7
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 21, 2020
The big turning point (or non-turning point) was the incredibly soft penalty award to United that the Video Assistant Referee took about three hours to look at – ultimately as we know, Emi pulled off a magnificent save for what was their only shot on target from the stats, although I also remember a very lame header that could barely be called an attempt on target.
Not only did his save mean the clean sheet, it basically won us two points as short of our heads going, we would’ve definitely at least equalised.
Martinez's Debut...
£20m Well Spent
Jury Is Still Out For Me
Speaking to the Express & Star following the game, our 28-year-old newbie knew it made it a massively successful debut for him.
“Keeping a clean sheet and getting the three points – what a start. I didn’t even know where to dive to be honest. Obviously penalties are luck and at the end of the day I just follow my instincts. All goalies work and watch videos on watching Sheffield United and their strengths but like I said it is just instincts. It feels great, it was like scoring a hat-trick for me. Saving a penalty and keeping the clean sheet for me is the best game I could ever play.”
https://twitter.com/Utdlnterest/status/1308098527655010307
More than showing his worth already.
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