Aston Villa fell to a 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on Tuesday night, as our hopes of securing Champions League football next season took a major blow.
Villa once again fell behind and were forced to produce a comeback, and Morgan Rogers’ goal just after the half-time interval looked set to give us a much-needed boost in our bid to get a positive result.
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However, the home side took charge soon after as we collapsed, and having suffered a heavy defeat on the road, Villa fell to 10th place in the Premier League table, with the possibility of falling five points adrift of fifth place by the end of this round of fixtures.
Focus will have to quickly switch to our FA Cup tie against Cardiff City on Friday, but there is no denying just how disappointing and frustrating this result is.
Defensive vulnerabilities must be fixed
That’s now 45 goals conceded in 28 league games so far this season, giving us the sixth worst defensive record in the top flight, with only the bottom five sides in the standings faring worse.
It simply has to be considered unacceptable for Emery and the players that we haven’t managed to find a solution to shore things up at the back, become a more robust and disciplined team, and to start keeping fundamental clean sheets to give ourselves a foundation on which we can build and win games consistently.
If we aspire to be a top team competing year in and year out at the top of the table, we just have to look at the teams challenging at that end. Liverpool have conceded 19 goals less than us, Arsenal have 22 less, even the likes of Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Newcastle Utd and Bournemouth have all conceded significantly less.
It has to be fixed regardless of personnel, otherwise it will be our undoing not only in the Premier League, but the cup competitions too. Furthermore, this isn’t a ‘this season problem’. Villa conceded 61 goals last season, a staggering amount considering we finished fourth.
Change in system, the wrong move?
Emery opted to change his system in midweek, with Lamare Bogarde dropping back into defence to form a back three, while Lucas Digne and Andres Garcia pushed on and essentially played as wing-backs.
Injuries and our gruelling schedule probably forced that on Emery to an extent as may have felt we would be more defensively sound in that formation and it matched up well with Palace in the opening half hour or so, as although it became a scrappy game, we largely nullified their threat.
However, it soon became apparent that there were holes and misunderstandings in the system that were being exposed, and coupled with the various tweaks and reshuffles that took place as we made changes, we lost our way and ultimately the game. A return to a more familiar set-up on Friday is likely.
Injuries, schedule are a contributing factor
As noted above, we can’t ignore how our injury problems and schedule are negatively impacting us, as having to deal with the absences of Pau Torres, Boubacar Kamara, Amadou Onana, Ross Barkley, Matty Cash and others at various times over the past month or so has been difficult.
We’re also playing every few days and so that puts an added strain on those holding down the fort, and we arguably saw a breaking point in midweek as it proved to be too much for a Villa side struggling with the demands of the season again, despite our strength in depth on the bench.
It doesn’t get any easier between now and May, and so if we have ambitions of repeating our achievement in the league last year and going further in the Champions League and FA Cup, we need players to start returning, and for that to be a catalyst to start securing more solid, convincing wins on a consistent basis.
Reaction needed vs Cardiff
Given we are very much targeting success in the FA Cup this season, Cardiff at home was always going to be a big game regardless. However, following such a desperately disappointing result in midweek, it becomes even bigger as we need to win, and win convincingly.
It feels as though we’re running out of time to fix our inconsistency in the league, and while it’s hoped that we’re still able to land a Europa or Europa Conference League spot, even that’s going to be difficult given our form and the competitive nature of the top half of the table.
That in turn puts more importance on the FA Cup as our most realistic opportunity of being successful this season and winning silverware, and there has to be a reaction and top-level performance on Friday night at Villa Park to restore some confidence and intent again.
Fixtures don’t get any easier, bleak outlook for top-five push
Villa’s fixture list doesn’t make for great reading the rest of the way, as it includes trips to Brentford, Brighton, Man City, Bournemouth and Man Utd, while we’ve yet to host Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Tottenham, along with a trip to Southampton.
Essentially, we’re facing all of our rivals in that cluster of teams in the top half, and with our woeful away record, we’ve got to figure things out quickly or it will slip away from us.
Getting Torres and Kamara back in particular next month will be huge and hopefully that happens sooner rather than later, but Emery has to identify and fix what is wrong with our balance, system and build-up play, to prevent results like this one happening again as well as becoming a harder team to beat.