Aston Villa made it three wins on the bounce as we secured a crucial 2-0 win away at Feyenoord in the Europa League.
After victories over Bologna and Fulham, Villa continued our turnaround in form with a battling three points in Rotterdam to continue our excellent start in our European campaign.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Feyenoord: Quartet decisive in excellent win
It’s hoped that we’re able to maintain this consistency and momentum against Burnley on Sunday as we look to put our start-of-season slump firmly behind us, and the confidence taken from such an impressive win will no doubt help significantly.
Goals from Emiliano Buendia and John McGinn sealed the three points against our Dutch rivals, with Villa sitting third in the Europa League standings with maximum points thus far.
Bizot shines with decisive display
Despite being called upon at short notice after Emiliano Martinez had initially been named in the starting line-up, Marco Bizot came into the side and produced a decisive display between the posts.
Aside from a string of fine saves, the Dutch shot stopper commanded his box well and organised the backline efficiently to keep another clean sheet, as he continues to impress whenever he’s brought into the side.
It looks to be an inspired signing to add reliable goalkeeper cover, and based on his form thus far when involved, he’s arguably done enough to deserve to keep his place in the Villa XI on Sunday regardless of whether or not Martinez has recovered from his setback.
Pau back to playing at high level
The influence of Pau Torres in our defence is fundamental to our way of playing, and we’ve started to see that over the past few games as he returns to playing at a high level.
While Ezri Konsa deserves plenty of praise too as he put in another top shift alongside the Spaniard, it’s Pau who helps to make us tick with his composure, technical quality and vision to play intricate passes through the lines to set us on our way.
We saw that with his pass to find Donyell Malen in the lead up to our second goal, while for a second consecutive game, he’s shown physicality and determination to win his defensive duels and offer us more solidity in that phase of the game too.
Kamara influence critical in midfield
Similarly to the point above, McGinn deserves praise too if we’re going to discuss our midfield pivot as the Villa skipper is not only battling to give us a foothold in games, but he’s popped up with three goals in his last three outings.
Nevertheless, it’s Boubacar Kamara who should be acknowledged too as the Frenchman’s ability to break play up, regain possession and disrupt the opposition’s rhythm coupled with his class on the ball, makes him a fundamental presence in the heart of the Villa side.
He even popped up in an advanced position to tee up Buendia for his goal, and so with that strong core to our side performing at a high level, it certainly plays an instrumental part in our positive results.
Buendia backing up his words
Having reiterated his desire to help Villa this week, Buendia backed up his words with a performance on the pitch and another decisive impact.
With his flair, tactical and positional awareness and creativity on the ball, the Argentine playmaker looked one of our better players in the first half as he was able to play passes that created openings for us.
However, he really stepped up after the break with a wonderful finish to break the deadlock, and it’s just delightful to see him relishing his second chance and playing a key role for us. With consistent playing time, he’ll hopefully continue to improve his fitness and sharpness, and hopefully he has many more goals and assists in him this season.
Villa building momentum, consistency and rediscovering identity
It’s always dangerous to suggest that we’ve fully turned a corner and that we’re now back, as one poor result can result in things crashing back down to an extent.
That said, after seeing encouraging signs against Bologna but particularly Fulham, Villa looked to be rediscovering their identity and way of playing in the second half at Feyenoord as we grew into being the better side.
Stringing wins together ultimately builds momentum, consistency and confidence, and so we’ll hopefully see that continue at home against Burnley on Sunday as we look to put our desperately poor start to the season behind us, and focus on putting together a critical run of form across two fronts to get us back to the level we want to be performing at.
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