Aston Villa’s stuttering form continued as they drew 2-2 with Crystal Palace in a richly-entertaining encounter at Villa Park.
On the back of losing four games across all competitions for the first time in his managerial career, Unai Emery stopped the losing run but things threatened to get worse when Ismaila Sarr stunned Villa Park with an early opener.
The excellent Sarr ran the show for the visitors with his pace and power in behind and took his goal nicely before Ollie Watkins levelled.
Dean Henderson saves a penalty from Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans
The drama peaked just before half-time when Dean Henderson saved a Youri Tielemans penalty after a VAR check showed Will Hughes had stepped on Leon Bailey’s heel, and Palace scored from a counter-attack just 57 seconds later through Justin Devenny – his first professional goal.
Tielemans reacts after his penalty was saved by Henderson
Villa wanted another penalty with 20 minutes to go when Maxence Lacroix appeared to get the wrong side of Watkins, but referee Tim Robinson waved away appeals. The official was involved again moments later when he decided on just a yellow card for Ian Maatsen who took down Sarr when looking like he was the last man.
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Aston Villa managed to avoid a red card in the game against Crystal Palace, with former referee Mike Dean not best pleased with the officials
Ross Barkley did head Villa level in the second half but Palace struck a post late on through Jeffrey Schlupp.
It was the same old story for Palace, who held leads at Everton and Wolves earlier this season, as they were unable to cross the finishing line, with Barkley’s equaliser leaving them winless on the road this term.
Villa have now taken just seven points from their last seven Premier League games and have won just five of their last 16 matches either side of the summer break.
Analysis: Glasner gets it spot on with Sarr and Mateta
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Oliver Glasner said goalscorer Justin Devenny has earned his playing time for Crystal Palace, stating he is hard-working and a great technical player
Sky Sports‘ Lewis Jones:
A sign of a shrewd operator when it comes to management is one who can find solutions to problems. Oliver Glasner was without Eberechi Eze, Eddie Nketiah, Adam Wharton and Daichi Kamada at Villa Park – all four would have started in an ideal world. Glasner did not make excuses, he found a way. His way was to play very directly to Sarr and Mateta to expose Villa’s high-line and his front two delivered his plan to perfection.
They were both borderline unplayable. Mateta with his hold-up play and Sarr with his direct and excellently-timed running. That was on show for the first goal where Mateta played through his strike partner to open his account for the Premier League season. Villa simply could not handle them.
Villa are too easy to play against
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Unai Emery admitted his concern over Aston Villa regularly conceding goals from transitions, after their 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace
Sky Sports’ Lewis Jones:
It is hard to be too critical of Emery when it comes to analysing his tenure at Aston Villa, but one thing is becoming a worry – it is easy to create high-quality chances against them. It is now just one clean sheet in their last 17 games after Palace managed to score twice at Villa Park. They have conceded 31 goals in that period to a per-game average of 1.82. Only Wolves and West Ham have conceded more goals in that time.
For a team that has European aspirations that is way below the standard required. Until Emery finds a fix, Villa will continue to struggle to match last season’s highs.
Story of the match in stats…
Opta stats: Winless Villa
- Aston Villa are winless in their last six games across all competitions (D2 L4), equalling their longest run without a victory under Unai Emery (also six in April-May 2024). They’ve also drawn three consecutive Premier League home games for the first time since December 2014-January 2015 (3).
- Only Manchester City (13) have won more points from losing positions than Aston Villa (11) in the Premier League this season. Indeed, Villa have only lost one of their previous six league matches in which they’ve conceded the opening goal (W3 D2).
- Sarr scored and assisted in a Premier League game for the second time in his career, previously doing so versus Liverpool in February 2020. Indeed, Aston Villa are the opponent he’s been involved in the most goals against in the English top-flight (5 – three goals and two assists in four appearances).
