The revival Unai Emery brought to Aston Villa could be winding down as the team finished on a very low form last season, losing 2-0 to a Manchester United they were tipped to win, and then starting this new season with very unconvincing performances.
Towards the end of last season, Emery’s side were in Champions League qualifications conversations but losing to Manchester United in the last game of the season meant that was not to be. Aston Villa has been decent since Emery took over especially in the last season when they went all the way to the Champions League Quarter Final and even though they lost, fans and the footballing world were impressed at their display against a very vicious PSG side.
It is however surprising that with all of the momentum the team had last season, they have not only failed to win any of their first three matches in the league but have also failed to get a goal.
In the first match vs Newcastle United, the game looked like a stalemate but when Konsa was shown a red card in the 66th minute, the odds tilted to Newcastle’s favor. It was rather impressive that Aston Villa dug deep and prevented the Magpies from constituting any damage.
Facing Brentford seemed like an easy challenge for two reasons. From the Brentford vs Aston Villa H2H, the latter were always the better team and secondly Brentford have lost much of their attacking power in Mbeumo who’s now with Manchester United and Wissa, plotting a move to Newcastle. The Bees were on the back of a 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest and the odds were stacked in favor of Aston Villa.
New signing Dango Ouattara from Bournemouth opened his Brentford account with a 12th minute strike and that was the only goal in the match.
In their recent match vs Crystal Palace, it was largely expected that Palace would be a challenge for Emery’s side and they really were. Mateta converted a penalty for the visitors in the first half and second half goals from Guehi and Sarr gave the Eagles their first win in the Premier League.
It was still a game without a goal for Emery but with the signing of Jadon Sancho, there’s hope that Emery has more attacking power to rely on.
