Dave Woodhall sees Villa beat Fulham to keep their European hopes alive.
Coverage of Villa in the media has never been good, but it’s definitely getting worse, When the teams were announced for this game, the press said there was one change from the game last Saturday. This,of course, was totally inaccurate. There was no game last Saturday. In fact, last Saturday didn’t happen at all.
Anyway, Ian Maatsen was in for Lucas Digne and a few players seem to be undroppable. Morgan Rogers has been in need of a rest for a few weeks, Tyrone Mings was notable by his absence from the starting line-up once again and there was no place for the resurgent Leon Bailey. Still, Unai knows best.
And that was borne out after twelve minutes. By then Villa had already been awarded three corners and the third of these, delivered by John McGinn, was met by Youri Tielemans and an unstoppable header gave them the lead. When we start off attacking we do well; patience and a slow build-up inevitably hands the advantage to the opposition.
Villa continued to attack. Ollie Watkins was pushed over in the box but for some reason what would have been a foul two yards further back doesn’t count then Tielemans had a twenty-yard shot touched wide.
Right after half-time Watkins had an open goal but failed to get a touch, then Fulham had a goal disallowed for a handball that was so clear the Villa defence seemed to have stopped before the shot was taken. The visitors had a couple more chances that really didnt trouble Emiliano Martinez while Watkins should have done better when one on one with the Fulham keeper and when he went off his replacement Donyell Malen was unlucky with a rasping drive that hit the bar.
Three points from a decent if not exhilarating performance, with a clean sheet thrown in. You don’t have to be a football genius to know that Villa have got to win their last four games to have a good chance of getting back into the Champions League and we’re now a quarter of the way there.
As we approach the final run-in a few more things are becoming clearer. The first is that Marco Asensio is another player showing that the better the debut, the more disappointing the rest of their career and he’s surely going to have to go some to be here next season. Morgan Rogers is in need of a rest, although he was a bit livelier today that he has been of late.
Watkins needs a goal soon to get that record because I’ve a sneaking feeling he won’t be here much longer. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Tyrone Mings isn’t regarded as surplus to requirements in the summer, either.
But most of all, we may have to lose a player or two to keep the right side of the PSR rules. It might be Watkins, or, God forbid, Martinez, possibly with Leon Bailey departing as well. The one player who must not, under any circumstances, be allowed to leave Villa Park is Youri Tielemans.
