Villa complete misfiring set of Premier League title contenders with rare home defeat | OneFootball

A funny old weekend of Premier League action ended with a funny old game at Villa Park.

There will be a significant quantity of rueing for Aston Villa after a huge missed opportunity to insert themselves right back into the title conversation.

Arsenal, presumably, can’t quite believe their luck that a weekend where disappointment at their own result is countered by the fact as an away point it was the best result this weekend of anyone in the top four.

Indeed, the best result of any team in the top five as it stood before the weekend, because back in the distant mists of Saturday morning, Brentford were fifth in the league for some reason, weren’t they?

So the top five at the start of this weekend managed two draws and three defeats between them. With both draws coming against relegation-threatened teams in Nottingham Forest and Burnley. Two teams who, while we’re on the subject of unexpected outcomes, got excellent draws against elite opposition and ended up worse off for it.

While none of the top five won, none of the bottom five lost, picking up two wins and three draws for their efforts. Proper Barclays, that. Anyone can beat anyone and all that. Or at least nick a draw.

So while Sunday’s action itself may have been on the drab side, you can’t say it hasn’t contributed to a topsy-turvy weekend of daftness all in.

Everton won’t give a stuff about any of that, of course. A patched-up squad riddled with injury and suspension went to Villa Park and did a number on a team that simply doesn’t lose here. Certainly not as tamely as this.

David Moyes came knowing a point would represent excellent business, and Everton’s approach reflected that. But this was no bus-parking exercise. When the opportunity presented itself, Everton looked to attack with pace and numbers.

That was clear within the first 15 seconds, within which Merlin Rohl scuffed a shot onto the inside of the post. Officially the earliest the woodwork has been struck in any Premier League game for which we have Opta data for these matters. You’ll never sing that etc. and so forth.

Villa just never really got going, and weren’t helped by the fact Morgan Rogers – the man who has done more than most to get them out of this sort of sticky situation this season (and no team this season is better than Unai Emery’s Villa at extracting themselves from sticky situations) – had a day to forget. His shooting was wayward, his touch erratic, and by the end he cut a deeply frustrated figure as a series of decisions went against him.

Perhaps the biggest was the decision not to award a free-kick just outside the Everton area after James Garner won the ball cleanly enough with his feet but only after planting his hands on Rogers’ back. Had a free-kick been given as it probably should, it would likely also have to have been accompanied by a yellow card that would have been Garner’s second.

The timing of that incident, just before the only goal of the game, and the fact Garner was the game’s standout performer, will grate with a Villa fanbase where a sense of injustice and resentment is bubbling up.

In truth, though, they have only themselves to blame for missing such a golden opportunity here. It already felt like your classic ‘moment of brilliance or error to settle this’ kind of game, and in the end we kind of got both.

Pau Torres’ mistake to cede possession in a dangerous area was honking, and Emi Martinez didn’t do anywhere near enough with a routine save that gave Thierno Barry the chance to pounce on the loose ball and score for a third time in his last four Premier League games.

He still had a bit to do, though, clipping his finish expertly over both the recovering Martinez and a defender on the line. And you can’t really have a more appropriate winning goalscorer in a game between Villa and Everton than a bloke called Barry.

It all got a bit backs to the wall for Everton after that, to no great surprise, but it never felt truly desperate. Never did Villa’s attacking effort feel compelling or inevitable. One smart but fairly routine save from a long-range Morgan Rogers effort was all Jordan Pickford really had to do, with those in front of him generally getting in the way of everything else.

Frustration will be inevitable for Villa given what was available here; three points clear of City, just four behind Arsenal had it all played out differently. But really, nothing is f*cked. They are still seven clear of fourth-placed Liverpool and, with fifth place almost certainly good enough, the cushion for the Champions League qualification that would have represented a fair pre-season target is still nine points.

But momentum is a tricky and nebulous thing. Villa put in a lot of effort to get it going back their way after a difficult start to the season, but it can often feel much more easily lost than found. And they’ve now dropped eight points in their last four games, having dropped just three in the previous 13.