Aston Villa fell to a heavy 5-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on the final day of the Premier League season after a woeful performance at Selhurst Park.
Although a place in the Champions League was already secured having finished fourth, it had been hoped that Villa would sign off on a positive note to end what has been an exceptional campaign.
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Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be, as a combination of missing far too many key individuals and abject, tired performances from those on the pitch ensured that we end the year with a heavy loss.
Unai Emery will no doubt let his players know exactly what he thought of this display and result at a later time, but looking at the bigger picture, it has been a remarkable and memorable season, and there remains plenty to look forward to this summer to try and build on our superb achievement.
Aston Villa player ratings vs Crystal Palace:
Robin Olsen, 4.5 – Conceded five goals so naturally gets marked down significantly, but he was done no favours by his teammates in front of him who made it very easy for Palace to cut through us at will. But for some big saves, it could have been worse.
Ezri Konsa, 4 – Another tough afternoon for him at right-back, as he didn’t look particularly comfortable in possession and was caught out continuously by Palace’s quality in the final third.
Diego Carlos, 4 – Really poor performance from the Brazilian centre-half. Didn’t close down well or quickly enough, marking in the box was nowhere near good enough either. Needs to be much better than this showing.
Clement Lenglet, 4 – Similar story to his centre-half partner as neither did well enough defensively to deal with the threat through the middle or crosses into the box. Likely to be his last Villa appearance as his loan deal expires this summer.
Lucas Digne, 4 – The entire Villa backline was well off the pace in this one and while we were cut apart through the middle time and time again, we couldn’t stem the Palace threat from either flank either.
Moussa Diaby, 4 – Missed two big chances in the first half that could have changed the complexion of the encounter entirely. Needs to be more clinical in and around the box.
Calum Chambers, 4 – In what could have been his last Villa appearance, we saw why. Was always going to be difficult in the midfield anchor role, but he was well off the pace and gave us no protection in that gap between the lines where Palace thrived.
Douglas Luiz, 4 – Played a coupled of decent passes, but similar to Chambers, gave us no protection in midfield and no real foothold in the game like he did so well earlier in the campaign on a consistent basis. Fatigue has perhaps caught up with him, while the absence of Boubacar Kamara has been huge too.
John McGinn, 4 – Battled hard as he always does, but couldn’t influence the game positively enough. Without the support and same qualities around him, it was always going to be a difficult task.
Jhon Duran, 4 – Starved of service, did well at times to impose himself and give us a focal point up top, but not enough of a threat to impact the game.
Ollie Watkins, 4 – Threatened at times, but ultimately came up short in his pursuit of a 20th Premier League goal. Similar to Duran in that they didn’t have much to work off as we didn’t show enough control or quality throughout the encounter.
Substitutes:
Tim Iroegbunam, 4 – Struggled along with the rest of his teammates as he came on in difficult circumstances with the game already gone.
Omari Kellyman, 4 – Same assessment as Iroegbunam, as the pair should have come on earlier to give them something to chase and make a positive impact. Thankless task coming on with the game gone and the rest of the team out on their feet already.
Finley Munroe, N/A
Kaine Kesler-Hayden, N/A
