Aston Villa had to settle for a share of the spoils at Wolves on Sunday, with the two sides playing out a 1-1 draw at Molineux.
Villa fell behind in the second half, but it was a brief setback as Pau Torres bagged his first goal for the club to bring us level just two minutes after conceding.
READ MORE: What Emery said in assessment of Villa’s draw at Wolves
However, despite some late drama and having threatened to find a winner, we couldn’t quite repeat our midweek heroics with an injury-time goal, and so it’s a hard-earned point to end before the international break.
Villa return against West Ham Utd on October 22, but sit in fifth place in the Premier League table after a strong start to the campaign.
Villa not at their best but battle for a point
If things ‘clicked’ for us against Brighton last weekend, we weren’t able to follow that up in this game as we struggled to find rhythm and quality in our attacking play.
While it was tidy and safe as we built out from the back, as the ball progressed through midfield and beyond, Villa weren’t able to find ways through Wolves to create openings as consistently as we would have liked, and there was a lack of sustained pressure.
That said, we ended the game well as they went down to 10 men, and while it’s a decent point considering our recent struggles at Wolves, Unai Emery was unsurprisingly frustrated after the game that we couldn’t claim all three.
Pau Torres bags his first Villa goal
While scoring a crucial goal in itself was a big moment for Torres, the fact that he immediately made up for the defensive frailties he showed for the goal we conceded was vital.
The Spaniard remains a classy presence in our backline, but again, when left in a 1v1 situation, his physicality and pace came into question as he was beaten by Neto, who provided the assist for the goal.
Nevertheless, it was a great show of character and desire from Torres to go up the other end of the pitch and score just minutes later, and if we can see him become a consistent threat on set-pieces, it adds a new dynamic to our attack.
McGinn sets the tone himself after pre-match demand
Prior to the game, Villa captain John McGinn stressed that we had to ‘win the fight first’. We’d conceded the opening goal of the game in the first nine minutes on both our previous trips to Molineux, so something had to change.
McGinn took it upon himself to set the tone early, as he got stuck into the midfield battle and made his presence felt by being a physically imposing figure with his full-blooded tackling and ability to get under the skin of the opponents.
We need our influential skipper to perform at that level as more often that not, it drives everyone around him on too. While we didn’t show enough quality to see off Wolves, that early stage was vital to set up getting a point on the road by getting a foothold and taking the crowd out of it as best as possible.
Top five over international break, time to regroup
Villa sit in fifth place in the Premier League standings after eight games, with five wins, one draw and two defeats.
That’s a good spot to be in considering the adversity we’ve faced so far with injuries and heavy defeats on the road, and so we’ve shown character and personality to bounce back and start the domestic campaign well.
Although we’ll have a number of players away on international duty now, there will be a chance for several key figures to regroup, recharge and go again after the break. Further, we hope to see some of our injured players get close to making a return, while Emery will undoubtedly use it as an opportunity to relentlessly analyse where we can get better.