Matt Maher gives his take on Villa's 4-1 defeat against Crystal Palace.
Unai Emery's side were behind at the break, before drawing level through Morgan Rogers early in the second half.
However, Villa collapsed and conceded three second half goals as they slumped to a miserable defeat.
Unai Emery's side were behind at the break, before drawing level through Morgan Rogers early in the second half.
However, Villa collapsed and conceded three second half goals as they slumped to a miserable defeat.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Good evening from Sellers Park. Well this place has rarely been a happy hunting
00:04ground for Villa historically over the years. Just two wins over Crystal Palace
00:09since 1980 and tonight a 4-1 defeat which has rather extinguished a lot of
00:16the positivity that came about through the Saturday's 2-1 win over Chelsea.
00:21Unai Emery said the plan was to stop Palace and well you know for nearly half
00:27an hour it worked. Villa matched the hosts by going three at the back and Palace didn't seem
00:32to have too many clues about what to do with it but then they won a corner and from that corner
00:37they scored. Ismail Iskar Sarr hitting home on the rebound after Emi Martinez had parried
00:44Chris Richards' header. Villa thought they'd equalised before half-time. The goal was disallowed.
00:48Morgan Rodgers' goal disallowed for an incredibly narrow VAR call on Olly Watkins. Watkins looked
00:54onside on the replay as we saw in the press box so the monitors aren't that clear but it's just
01:00one of those calls that you think you know in the old days you'd have looked at that. You'd looked
01:05at the replay and said yeah he's level. There wouldn't have been a question mark but now obviously the game
01:09is judged by millimetres and it was ruled out. Second half Villa did get level. A really nice
01:14finish from Morgan Rodgers. Sublime piece of skill. That's 52 minutes in and the game looked in the
01:20balance but then Villa collapsed really. I don't think there's any other way to describe that.
01:25Mateta put Palace back in front after Villa got in trouble playing out from the back.
01:30Sarr made it 3-1 just past 70 minutes. That was after Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford
01:35had come off the bench but they couldn't give as much effect. Rashford did get past Dean Henderson
01:40in a wide position but he wasn't able to find a teammate in the middle. That was at 3-1
01:46and to rub further salt in the wound Eddie Nikeshia scored in stoppage time. 4-1 defeat
01:51for Villa. Their seventh defeat in nine Premier League matches and frankly you know if they can't
01:56find a solution to these away day woes then it's pointless talking about qualifying
02:00for the top four, top five Champions League. They're just not going to get there. It's really a case of
02:05back to the drawing board for Emery and another concern and injury to Emi Martinez. He came off at
02:11the break so with just 72 hours to the big FA Cup game against Cardiff his status is in doubt as well.