Sunderland hosted Aston Villa and before the game, the odds were stacked in the favour of Aston Villa. This was a very experienced Premier League team facing a newly promoted side. It had all shades of an Aston Villa all over it as Emery’s men began pressing on Sunderland in search of their first league goal. If the odds did not favor Aston Villa by the 33rd minute when Sunderland’s Reinildo Mandava was given a straight red, it definitely did.
A quick change was warranted in the 37th minute as Ballard came in for Rigg in what was clearly a thoughtful tactical change to suppress the Villa pressure which showed better man-management than what we saw Maresca do vs Manchester United after Roberto Sanchez’s red card.
The change paid of as Villa kept mounting pressure and Sunderland stayed unfazed. For all the efforts of Unai Emery’s men, the breakthrough came from a corner and it was Matty Cash’s right-footed shot that was too powerful for the Sunderland goalkeeper to handle. Roefs looked like he could have done better with that shot but the Villa men won’t care as they needed that goal so badly.
Having conceded, it felt like Sunderland decided to come all out and risk it all and that risk did pay off as Isidor reacted quicker than Mings, Konsa, and Matty Cash to slot a headed pass from Granit Xhaka to the bottom left corner for the equalizer.
The rest of the game was more of an Aston Villa show with every player for Sunderland constantly behind the ball to make blocks and clearances. And the spoils were shared but it was a game Sunderland will look back to and take some positives from. They have lost only one of their last Premier League fixtures and sit at 7th place in the table.
Aston Villa may have gotten their first league goal but they are ranked 18th in the league right now.
