While it was solid rather than spectacular, Aston Villa made it four consecutive wins after securing a 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Goals from Bertrand Traore and Ollie Watkins sealed all three points, and while it wasn’t our most convincing performance under Unai Emery, we still registered another clean sheet and got the job done.
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The Villa boss will have noted that there is still plenty of room for improvement, particular against sides who opt to sit back and frustrate us, but it was another important test passed as we continue our push to secure a European qualification spot.
Our third win in the space of a week lifts us up into sixth place in the Premier League table for now, and it keeps our momentum going while continuing to build confidence and belief within the group.
Emery’s ‘way’ continuing to develop
Villa found it difficult in the first half, as we struggled to find ways to trouble the Forest defence and build sustained pressure to create clear-cut chances.
While we were patient and measured in possession, our tempo was too slow in the final third and that was an issue against a side happy to sit back and frustrate us while trying to counter.
Fortunately, we were able to find a breakthrough at a crucial point in the game. However, while Emery will be delighted that this was another key test passed, there is room for improvement in our play and style against sides ready to defend deeper and close off spaces between the lines. We’ll have to learn to deal with that more often too if we continue to play the quality of football we have been recently.
Traore continues to make vital impact
After bagging a decisive winner in midweek at Leicester City, Traore was called into action much earlier this time after Leon Bailey’s injury blow.
While he needed time to settle into the game, his bit of quality to break the deadlock was fundamental in getting us a win and that’s back-to-back games now where he has been influential.
With Bailey potentially now set for a spell on the sidelines, Traore will be at the top of the pecking order to come in and replace him, and it’s hoped that his last two outings give him real confidence to show consistency between now and the end of the season.
Watkins goalscoring run continues
After finding the back of the net late on, Watkins made it nine goals in his last 11 league outings as he continues to have a huge impact for us in the final third.
His touch and finish were excellent, and he’s showing more composure and ruthlessness in front of goal now to pounce on chances like that, scoring consistently and in different ways.
We’ll need him to maintain that in the coming weeks, as given we’re set to come up against top-half opposition for the most part, we must be clinical when chances come our way.
Clean sheets, wins as home form addressed
While our away form dramatically improved after Emery arrived, the Spanish tactician was desperate to get things right at Villa Park and was bitterly disappointed after our back-to-back 4-2 defeats at home in February.
Since then, we’ve kept three consecutive clean sheets and picked up three wins, and while we still need to evolve and develop our style to be more consistent and effective, that’s a solid foundation to lift the mood for all concerned.
Villa are becoming harder to beat while continuing to score goals week in and week out, and that’s a crucial balance that was missing at home previously, but we’ll need to show even more growth starting next weekend with the visit of Newcastle Utd.
Villa establish important foundation, sets us up for run-in
Our latest win moves us up into sixth place, and while that gives us a cushion over the likes of Brentford, Fulham and Chelsea now in our bid to secure a top-half finish, we’ve still got work to do to fend off the others.
Brighton and Liverpool have two games in-hand and so time will tell if they get the results to leapfrog us, but ultimately we can only control what we do and we have to focus on continuing to win.
We’ve established an excellent foundation and position with eight games left having won the games we were perhaps expected to win, and now as we prepare to face several teams directly around us in the standings, it promises to be a thrilling and hopefully successful run-in that results in qualifying for Europe.