Sunday’s match is over. There is nothing more that Tim Sherwood and his squad can do to stop the bludgeoning that occurred in the last twenty minutes at the King Power Stadium. Accepting that the win was given away by his Aston Villa side is appropriate, but there is no need to keep on dwelling on the negative, it is time to move on. The fact is Aston Villa were the better side for the majority of the match Sunday, and focusing on that is the first step in moving on from the weekend’s defeat.
Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, Aston Villa had one of their best performances of the year in the defeat against Leicester. Sure, the last twenty minutes of the match were absolutely dreadful from the Claret and Blue. Villa spent the majority of that time in their own half, trying desperately to defuse crosses and exterminate Leicester breaks on goal,and eventually Villa were torn open by the Foxes’ attack and the net was pierced on three different occasions to hand the away side the loss. However, the sixty minutes that took place before the drumming were filled with progressive, prepossessing football from Aston Villa, something we have not seen in a long, long time.
From the pacy runs of Gabriel Agbonlahor to the crunching tackles of Micah Richards, Aston Villa were in a sync from front to back in the better half of Sunday’s match. The pace in the forwards of Sinclair and Agbonlahor kept the Leicester backline on their toes and the pair almost connected for a goal eight minutes in after Agbonlahor sent in an over-hit pass to the streaking Sinclair at the edge of the box. Villa didn’t stop there and continued to press on, this time through the midfield.
Despite the absence of Idrissa Gana Gueye, the Aston Villa midfield was nothing short of dominant. Carles Gil and Jack Grealish stole the show with their attacking prowess and creative ability. Both players showed why fans had such high expectations for the two throughout last season, as they both made immediate impacts. After a previous missed chance in the twenty-fifth minute, Jack Grealish avenged his mistake and finally made Villan dreams come true. The twenty-year-old squared up to a bouncing ball that came as a result of a failed corner and curled the sucker into the back of the net from outside the box. His first Aston Villa senior goal was nothing short of a beauty,and remained Villa’s only goal until the second half.
Between then, Villa spent the next twenty minutes fending off Leicester attacks. The new backline, featuring former England international Joleon Lescott, proved to be immense in the sixty minutes before the collapse. Jordan Amavi and Leandro Bacuna put in work defensively while also moving forward to feed the offense, while Lescott and Richards halted the centralized attack in an aggressive role. The away side continued where they left off at the start of the second half and in the sixtieth minute Villa took a two-goal lead thanks to Agbonlahor and Gil counter. However, the minute also marked the end of Villa’s dominance.
After Carles Gil’s curling shot found the net, crucial tactical mistakes led from Tim Sherwood along with the collapse of the once strong defensive presence of Carlos Sanchez and the accompanying backline led to Villa’s downfall.
Although the loss was disappointing in hindsight, Aston Villa flashed us something fans haven’t seen in half a decade. Villa showed all of us that they have the capability to be a strong, creative, and attacking side in the Premier League, and if they can fix the mistakes that snowballed into a defeat Sunday, Aston Villa will be on the way up.
