Aston Villa suffered a second consecutive defeat in the Premier League as they lost 4-3 to Southampton on Sunday afternoon.
A quite erratic first half performance from Dean Smith’s side saw the Saints go into the interval 3-0 to the good.
Jannik Vestergaard opened the scoring before James Ward-Prowse scored two free-kicks and the visitors’ lead was further enhanced when England international Danny Ings found the back of the net just before the hour mark.
With the points seemingly heading to Southampton, late drama saw Villa almost snatch a draw.
Tyrone Mings scored three minutes after Ings’ goal before Ollie Watkins and Jack Grealish netted in stoppage time but they were unable to complete what would have been an astonishing comeback.
The result left Villa seventh with a game in hand over the teams ahead of them but the pressure is now on Smith and his players to produce a better performance when they face Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal on Sunday.
So what has been said following Villa’s defeat to Southampton?
Journalist Ashley Preece was quick off the mark to examine Villa’s performance, picking out Jack Grealish as the standout performer whilst saying the Midlands club now have ‘alarming problems’.
Twitter: Emotionally erratic in-game & how to solve that Ross Barkley-John McGinn conundrum among concerns after Sunday’s de… https://t.co/ny84TmD8X1 (@PreeceObserver)
Following the game, BBC and BT Sport presenter Gary Lineker opted to touch on the game being on pay-per-view, saying it cost fans £2.13 a goal.
Twitter: A 7 goal thriller at Villa Park with @SouthamptonFC coming out on top, 4-3, despite a late rally from @AVFCOfficial… https://t.co/oXG5CwXHmM (@GaryLineker)
Finally, Villa cult hero Ian Taylor gave his short but expert opinion on the game and performance from his former club, saying that Dean Smith has ‘things to work on’, calling the first conceded goal ‘the worst’.
Twitter: Massively mixed emotions about the game. Gave ourselves a mountain to climb after 3 set piece goals the 1st the wor… https://t.co/TNNxzOWs1t (@IanTaylor7)
