Football Daily | Aston Villa finally win but remain a shadow of their former selves

2 hours ago 1

ASTON SMARTING

Seven games into the season and Aston Villa finally have a win on the board. And while it may have come in Bigger Vase, a competition they probably resent having to play in after being robbed of a lucrative Bigger Cup place by some overzealous refereeing in their final match of last season, it at least gives Unai Emery a platform on which to build, even if his players have yet to produce a performance even remotely fit to lace the steel-toed boots of all those geriatric rockers who joined Ozzy Osbourne at Villa Park for his summer farewell. Despite last night’s win, Emery’s side continue to look a pale facsimile of the one that pushed the tournament’s eventual winners, PSG, all the way over two legs in their Bigger Cup quarter-final last season. Something is definitely not quite right at Villa Park, a state of affairs perhaps best illustrated by the fact the assist for their winner came in the form of a comedy air-shot by the desperately out-of-sorts Morgan Rogers.

For all the hyperbolic talk during the international break of the midfielder playing his way into Thomas Tuchel’s England side, a series of increasingly peripheral performances suggest Rogers is currently doing his damnedest to play his way out of Emery’s Villa team and the hubbub among fans is that it is almost certainly time for him to be dropped. Lifting the World Cup could scarcely have seemed more of a pipe dream for Rogers as he suffered the ignominy of being sarcastically applauded upon the successful completion of a pass late in the second half. On the plus side, at least his manager was on hand to provide some post-match words of comfort. “He didn’t play well,” sighed Emery.

Up front, Ollie Watkins has yet to get off the mark this season and, in the moments before his penalty was saved by Bologna’s Lukasz Skorupski, could scarcely have looked more gripped by fear if he was the teenage babysitter in a horror movie who has just been told that the phone call is coming from inside the house. The striker has now gone 10 games without a goal for club or country and finds himself in that striker purgatory where teammates feel compelled to praise his work rate. “You’ve seen the effort he puts in for the team,” said John McGinn. “We don’t need to put any pressure on him and add to any external noise,” he continued, adding to the external noise.

While Emery has done an excellent job in reversing Villa’s fortunes since the Steven Gerrard banter era, their dismal start to the season has prompted critics to grasp whatever stick is available to beat him with. Failings in the transfer market have been highlighted. It has not gone unnoticed that nine of the starters in the team that failed to beat 10-man Sunderland last weekend pre-dated the Spaniard’s arrival at Villa Park six transfer windows ago. While grappling with the restrictions of profit and sustainability rules that force the club to sell players they might like to keep, Emery has approved the arrival of almost two dozen players, with Rogers, Youri Tielemans and Pau Torres the only obvious success stories. Meanwhile, tens of millions the club can ill afford to fritter away have been spaffed on mediocre signings who have yet to justify their price tags and huge wages. With Doctor Fulham – a team Villa have beaten in seven of their past eight meetings – next up at Villa Park, there could scarcely be a better time for Emery to find a cure for his club’s malaise.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I have to be careful what I say. I don’t want to put myself in danger. I’ll just make one statement. It’s a disgraceful decision. It’s really bad publicity for English football. It’s not right” – Valérien Ismaël, the Blackburn Rovers manager, shows due care in reacting to the EFL’s decision to replay the club’s game against Ipswich in full. Saturday’s game was abandoned in the 80th minute due to a waterlogged pitch, with Rovers leading 1-0 and Ipswich down to 10 men.

Valérien Ismaël, the Blackburn Rovers manager

The story of Lewis White going to the wrong Bury (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition) reminds me of my first stag do, when I dragged all my London mates up to Manchester and to a home game at Gigg Lane, in the fancy hospitality section (well, fancy by Bury standards). We were late getting to the game and as we were walking from the tram stop to the ground, my best man got a call from the club asking if we were on our way. They were clearly so excited at the prospect of a large group who had travelled all the way up from London that they wanted to make sure we made it. If only the lads at Bury Town had extended the same courtesy to Mr White” – Tom Dowler.

In 1994 pop singer Lena Fiagbe was booked to appear at the Radio One Roadshow in Bangor to perform her hit single (the, as it transpired, somewhat unfortunately titled) ‘Gotta Get It Right’. After a long trip to north Wales with her entourage, and some time fruitlessly looking for the park that was meant to be hosting Bruno Brookes et al, Lena’s manager placed a call to Radio 1 to ask for directions, only to be told they were expected in Bangor, Northern Ireland” – Tim Grey.

I admire Robbie Keane and wish him well in his role as manager of the legendary Hungarian club Ferencvaros, but I wish he would be more adventurous, tactically. I mean, just yesterday in Bigger Vase he parked Dibusz” – Peter Oh.

I read your story about Marko Arnautovic and his signing for Red Star (yesterday’s Football Daily). I must admit that, as a Serb and a cynic, I think that – apart from his huge love for Red Star and all the promises he made to the late Sinisa Mihajlovic – it certainly helps that Marko’s yearly salary is reportedly something like €2.5m, in a country where the average monthly wage is no bigger than €800” – Bogdan Kotarlic.

If you have any, please send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Tom Dowler, who wins some Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here.