This was an easy win, as much as we made hard work of it. The game should have been wrapped up in the first half really, but a win is a win.
I think this was a much more convincing performance, but we’re still not back to our best, in my opinion.
With that, I’m much happier that we will get there and it’s not the doom and gloom that was being felt everywhere on the internet a couple of weeks ago.
Here we go then;
Emi Martinez 6 Well, he never had a lot to do, did he? and the one proper shot he faced, he should have been better at, for me. Looking back, I don’t think he’ll be too happy with himself.
Matty Cash 7 As much as I don’t like him, I thought he did okay. He still frustrates the hell out of me, with the way he stops, allows the oppo’s defence to reset and then passes back. If these are instructions from Emery, they’re bad ones . If it’s Cash’s decision, just bloody stop it mate. As usual, he worked hard, as much as I don’t trust him and he played players short.
EMRI KONSA 9 It’s subjective from me as a few could have got the MOTM award. I just thought he had the Burnley defence totally in his pocket. Fair enough, that’s not saying a lot, as Burnley were mostly toothless, but you can only say as you see. He looked that Rolls Royce player we often hear about with Kamara.
Pau 8 He looked fine today, didn’t he? The way he plays forward is great, but he was never really threatened by Burnley’s attack, which is where he’s decidedly lightweight. His ideal game all round today and he’ll be thinking “can we play you every week?”, I’m sure.
Lucas Digne 7 Worked hard, but showed that he’s lost a touch of pace. That said, he was facing Kyle Walker, who still has a bit of speed about him. Put in a couple of decent crosses and played some good balls forward to the infield.
Bogarde 8 Wow, this lad is coming on in leaps and bounds. He’s comfortable defending and goes forward nicely too. Up in the running for MOTM, in my head, a great performance all round.
Kamara 7 I’m not sure many will agree, but he didn’t look 100% on it today, to me. Don’t get me wrong, he did nothing seriously wrong, but he didn’t look his totally accomplished self that he normally does either.
Malen 9 I know. Many will say he was the real MOTM and I’d be happy to accept the argument. I was incredibly happy for him to score twice and would have loved him to have got a hat-trick. I’ve been backing this bloke since he came, along with the vast majority of Villa fans. I think he did enough today, with his directness in running down the middle, to show that he’s a very viable option to Watkins.
McGinn 7 Didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, but he just does pretty well, game in, game out. His usual self, I guess.
Rogers 6 Yes, you know I’m his biggest fan. I’ll happily admit though, that he’s been rubbish this season. But I’m seeing signs that his confidence is coming back. The vision that he showed last season is slowly returning and he made a couple of really nice passes that didn’t quite pay off. Emery has showed immense patience in letting him play his way back into form, but I do think it’ll be worth the wait. There’s no better player when he’s firing on all cylinders, I think.
Watkins 6 He’s just not on it at all, is he? He looks unhappy to me. Played deeper behind Malen and that’s a position I’m happy with him to be in, as he runs his guts out. It would seem Emery thinks he’s not quite on it, striking-wise and I don’t think any of us would be surprised at that. I’m quite happy that if this continues for a while, he’ll get his scoring boots back on soon enough. He’s still a top player, but if the rumours that he’s seriously unhappy at the Villa are true, he can do one.
Guessand 6 A sub on for McGinn in the 67th minute. Hmm. Another player I really like the look of, but it just seems he’s struggling to get into the pace of the English game, to me. Again, I think it’ll come.
So while it was a decent performance, it wasn’t anything to write home about either.
Burnley offered next to no threat whatsoever and look like real relegation candidates at this stage. And if I prove to be ultimately correct, we really should have beaten Burnley by 3 or even 5 goals.
Still, I’m not complaining in the slightest. We won and that’s all I’m asking at this stage.
I will mention one thing though. Flemming’s elbow on Buendia. That was a natural movement.
Until he deliberately jerked his elbow upward at the last split second, which was fully intended. I firmly believe that was a red card.
And how VAR didn’t see it, is beyond me. Nothing new there though, I suppose.
A win’s a win and that’s four on the trot now, I think. That’ll do nicely.
UTV!
Another bloody international break next, isn’t it? Utter joke.
I totally agree with you in saying that we’re not back to our best, but there were definitely signs of the old Villa emerging today where we attacked with pace and created tons of space for our attacking players to feed off.
I think you are being harsh on Watkins, however, even though I’m not his biggest fan. His hold up play today was great and was pivotal in creating our first goal, and Rogers also did well to play it to Kamara, who eventually played the killer pass to Malen, who has a great finish on him!
Lamare Bogarde today played his best performance since joining Villa in my opinion, he was winning near enough everything, and was a stand out player for me. Malen is the obvious MOTM but he is a close second in my opinion.
I just think Cash gives the ball away far too much still, and puts us in dangerous positions. Martinez, yes, bang average again, we’ve now reached the point where it would not remotely concern a Villa fan if Marco Bizot started the next three games, which is quite astonishing considering Martinez has been a clear fan favourite during his time at Villa, along with McGinn etc.
That being said, nothing to write home about, but a really positive performance in my eyes, but we really need to be winning more convincingly because a team with a little bit more about them will punish us, and it will hurt, last season we were killed by the amount of winnable games at Villa Park ending up in 1-1 and 2-2 draws.
Good win though and things are looking up a tad! International break has come at the wrong time but is there ever a right time when the games are more or less meaningless.
UTV
The only caveat is – he does not attempt the killer defence-splitting pass which is most likely to be picked off. That said: Bogarde is the top player in the whole Premier League for % of accurate passes.
It is incredible that a player who is a stand-in starter when others are injured tops that metric.
Good win but made hard work in the end,martinez and cash to blame for goal, why didn’t he head it back to emi,and then the corner emi pushed player out of the way instead of concentrating on the corner bizot better at the moment I think.
And buendia I don’t know what var looked at because it was deliberate elbow he had seen buendia by him and that was deliberate plus didn’t even get booked discussed, buendia didn’t look good when came off so it wasn’t just a brush off was it..
Buendia got a yellow card for ‘leading with his arm’. If that was a yellow then Flemming should have received two red cards – that was a deliberate elbow and extremely dangerous play.
VAR is so discredited now it’s hardly worth mentioning!
Oh – and the coms – ‘Buendia ran into the elbow’ was their verdict.
Give me strength!
Just a quick add – it was good to see Barkley back; we’re going to need all the squad fit and no rumours of discord in the ranks.
Reports are he had a niggle, but also some personal issues, so something private at home. It could be a serious family matter, we don’t know and have to respect that. He sure tightens things up when he comes on the pitch.
I think we’ll miss Cash when eventually, like all players, leaves the club. You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, sang Joni Mitchell. Bogarde is a revelation. Can he keep it up? Malen looks great. Guessand is slowly adapting to the EPL, and has immense energy. As with Malen, he adds to the ‘bulk’ in our team. Too often we get shoved off the ball. That Fleming elbow was shocking. One of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. He saw Emi coming and that was a deliberate elbow on a shorter player. I hope Burnley go down after that.
Prediction: Watkins will leave AVFC in the January window. I think something was broken when he was left out of the CL for Rashford. A Quantum Of Solace has been reached. (The point in a relationship where there’s no going back).
If I’m honest, I don’t see him as a liability yet. Our problems are mid and forwards, which I hope are being seen with the current changes. We are now moving forward; that’s what I like to see us doing.
I am going to have to revise my opinion about Buendia, he now delivers an end product. Two good goals and he has contributed just when the alternative Tielemans is injured.
Yesterday he was on the end of a quite deliberate foul, Flemming looked to see where Buendia was before aiming his elbow. It was obvious enough once in real time, the VAR replays confirmed the first opinion.
Enzo Barrenechea is one game away from triggering the compulsory purchase of him, going to them for 12 million euros. That and his 3 million loan fee will be a nice little earner and we also have a 30% share of any future deal, capped at 10 million. I assume it was Monchi who sorted that deal, but it’s a good one as all parties are seemingly happy.