John Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 A late goal from the last kick of this sorry game, may have denied last season’s league champions a clean sheet, but it provided us with no consolation. It could not disguise the fact, that this was a grim return to the sort of humiliating non-performance’s, that we produced in the darkest days of season 2015-16! This was no less than shockingly embarrassing. We had started the game back in the bottom three, due to another win from a resurgent Watford earlier that day and at no time did we look capable of holding onto the point that would have taken us back above them. Manchester City ran through us at will. They started confidently and their confidence grew as it became clear that we were there for the taking. A league one or a league two team, would probably have shown more resistance and would have not capitulated as readily as we did yesterday. This defeat by a five-goal margin, could have been much worse. Six goals did not flatter the visitors and didn’t fully demonstrate the gulf in class between the two sides. It did however, effectively cost us the equivalent of 4 points, given the damage this thrashing did, to our previously comparatively healthy-looking goal difference. It also won’t have helped our recruitment process this month. We had the look of a sinking ship yesterday and players won’t be falling over themselves to join us after a display like this. Pepe Reina must have been looking for loopholes in his contract, after witnessing this debacle. We gave the visitors way too much space from the start. We didn’t press or challenge, stood back and just watched them play. We showed them far too much respect and they showed us no mercy. I had hoped before this game that we might produce something like the performance that we had given at Leicester in midweek. In the absence of McGinn and a striker of any description, it seemed unlikely that we could reproduce the sort of display that we gave, when unluckily losing to the champions elect two months ago. Instead we showed no belief and were no less than lambs to the slaughter. This game was lost at kick off, if not before. The visitors bossed the game all too easily and played the ball around as if we were not there, in the knowledge that goals were undoubtably coming. They are to good a team to fail to compete against. This was their attack versus our defence and there was only ever going to be one winner. We couldn’t string a couple of passes together for long periods and our midfield failed to make an impression on the game. Can we come back from this sort of demoralising performance? Well we won’t meet Manchester City again in the league this season and will meet Liverpool only once. Hopefully we will use this window to bring in at least a couple of forwards, so that we have an outlet up front and even a goal threat. Our remaining fixtures include games at Brighton, Bournemouth and West Ham. Watford visit Villa Park next and we really need to be winning games like these four, if we are to survive. Yesterday’s display does not encourage us to believe, but Southampton strung wins together after a 9-goal drubbing and Watford have now climbed above us, having looked done for, not long ago. We are only a point adrift of the next two clubs and are only three behind the next two, so we can but hope! My player ratings from a desperate, dispiriting game, are as follows: Orjan Nyland – 4 – Should have been able to get a hand to Aguero’s shot for their third on 28 minutes. Collected a 34th minute De Bruyne cross low at his near post. Aguero hit a 57th minute shot from the edge of the box into his hands and then having gifted possession back to the visitors with a poor throw, he collected Cancelo’s low cross at the near post. Stuck out a leg to block a 64th minute Silva shot at the near post and blocked a 70th minute deflected shot from the edge of the box from Cancelo Ahmed Elmohamady – 3 – Tried to shepherd the ball over the line, but Aguero was able to pull the ball back and this led to their second. Siva played the ball to his left to find Aguero inside the box and he wasn’t then able to put in a challenge before he hit the fifth, between Hause and Mings and past Nyland’s left hand. Ezri Konsa - 3 – Intercepted a 12th minute Cancelo cross that Jesus would otherwise have been likely to have turned in at the near post. His attempted 81st minute pass to Mings, was instead presented to Cancelo who in turn found Aguero, who proceeded to hit their final goal past Nyland. Tyrone Mings – 5 – Did well to keep out a 64th minute Jesus shot, that would otherwise have produced an earlier sixth for them. Kortney Hause – 3 – Should have been more determined to get a challenge in on Mahrez as he was about to hit home the opener. Neil Taylor – 3 – His 78th minute challenge on Jesus, deflected the ball wide of the near post for a corner. Danny Drinkwater - 2 – Thrown into this one having signed on loan only days earlier and been starved of fist team action for a couple of years. He therefore had some excuse for giving a less than effective performance. Substituted having got some much-needed game time after 79 minutes. Mahrez had went too easily past him on the edge of our box, before hitting their opener. He was then dispossessed by Silva, as he took a touch inside the area when trying to turn, who then set up Mahrez for their second. He was also unable to make any challenge on De Bruyne in the build up to the third and was outpaced by the same player, before he hit the cross for their fourth. Douglas Luiz – 3 – Substituted on 65 minutes. Left Aguero unhindered on the edge of the box; before he hit their third. Conor Hourihane – 2 – Made no impression on this game and his selection instead of the more defensive minded Marvelous was perhaps too adventurous. Jack Grealish – 5 – Picked up an unnecessary late booking for dissent, which could potentially rule him out of a vital future game. Anwar El Ghazi – 5 – Hit a 41st minute shot wide of the far post from just inside the left-hand edge of the box. Hit our 91st minute penalty into the back of the net, to the left of Ederson. Substitutes: Marvelous Nakamba – 5 - Replaced Douglas after 65 minutes and did well enough, on what was a very bad day for others. Trezeguet - 5 – MOTM - Came on for Hourihane on 71 minutes. Made a run into the box and his 86th minute shot was put out for a corner by Gundogan. He was then found inside the box by Jack and went past the same player, before being tripped by him to produce our penalty. Why on earth did VAR take a full minute to check, what was an obvious penalty? Henri Lansbury - Replaced Drinkwater after 79 minutes. Not on long enough to gather a rating Stay up Villa! John Lewis 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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