Written by Matt Stevenson
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Villa. These were against Arsenal and C Palace at home and Everton and W Ham away. They picked up 7 points from these games although xG suggests that maybe 4 or 5 would have been a fairer reflection, with Arsenal outplaying Villa, West Ham having the edge, the Everton game being tight and the shot-shy Palace being outplayed. In the four games Villa have scored 6 goals and conceded 5, whereas xG predicted 5.23 and 7.38.
The average positions of the starting line-up show that the formation appears to have changed in each game, possibly as Emery attempts to exploit weaknesses in the opposition and provide cover to counter their strengths. Against Arsenal, there was a glut of players down Villa’s defensive left where contrastingly their appears to be one player (Mings) covering this side against W Ham. If this is played against Ouattara then we could create many chances. Against Palace, the average positions look almost like a 2-4-1-3. I’m not sure at all what to make of this figure of the last 4 games.
The 6 goals have been scored by Watkins (3), Coutinho, Buendia and an Own Goal. Three players have 2 assists each, Cash, Moreno and McGinn.
Villa have had 36 chances (8 of them big chances) in these games with almost half of these chances coming from the left. They have conceded 56 chances (9 big) with the majority coming from passes from the wings. For reference, we have had 27 chances (7 big chances), with half of our chances created coming from the left wing, although this was against the top 2 and also Liverpool who hadn’t conceded in the 4 league games before playing us.
Aston Villa v AFCBVilla Win
Draw
AFCB Win
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Your say…
KingKieffer wrote…
Watched the Villa vs West Ham game on Sunday and frankly, I didn’t think that they were very impressive at all based on that showing, they got outplayed and didn’t offer a lot from an attacking perspective. Their left-back Moreno, although he got an assist with one of the crosses of the season, was a complete liability when defending and was chasing shadows every time Bowen attacked him. They looked pretty toothless in attack too, aside from the goal it never felt like they were going to score. Like us, they are also incredibly vulnerable when defending set pieces, Martinez looked like an accident waiting to happen every time an in-swinging delivery was put in and a number of their players resorted to desperately holding onto their marker as a means of defending those situations. We shouldn’t be fearful going here, this is a real chance to get three points if we can defend properly and limit our entire vulnerabilities from set pieces. – To join the conversation, click here.
