After dominating the first half and with key moments not going our way as we lost our way after the interval, it looked set to be a frustrating afternoon for Aston Villa against Crystal Palace.
With our clinical edge abandoning us in the opening 45 minutes as we were wasteful in front of goal, the visitors then scored almost immediately after the restart and put us in unfamiliar territory.
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It was the first time Villa had trailed at home since stoppage time in our 4-2 defeat to Arsenal back in February, and so it asked different questions and posed new challenges as our preferred style of play hadn’t delivered the usual results.
The first half was a fascinating affair in itself. With Palace refusing to press us higher up the pitch and thus fall into our traps as we built out from the back, Villa had to be more patient and measured in our approach to find a breakthrough.
While we continued to probe in search of a way to unlock their defence, we simply couldn’t convert big chances, and there was a period after falling behind where we lost our structure and rhythm and looked slightly rattled.
As pointed out by Unai Emery in his post-match interview, the Villa players played with their hearts more than their minds in those final 20 minutes or so, as we willed ourselves forward in search of a way back into the encounter.
However, and while this doesn’t take anything away from the players who ultimately got the job done by producing the quality required, it started with Emery’s in-game management.
Leon Bailey, Youri Tielemans and Jhon Duran were introduced from the hour mark onwards, and all three had a decisive hand in the late turnaround.
Duran of course produced a stunning goal to spark the comeback, while Tielemans played the pass into Ollie Watkins for him to win the penalty before playing another key ball through to Moussa Diaby for his assist for the third, with Bailey converting to seal the victory.
It was clear that we’d lost our way after Jean-Philippe Mateta’s goal against the run of play, with Joel Ward missing a big chance to double their lead as there was a sense of panic as we looked unsettled and lacked composure.
It looked like a shock to our system and we needed to regroup, and that started and improved with the changes, as the trio of substitutes all proved to be decisive in getting the three points.
That’s an important box ticked for Villa, as we showed a different way of winning with our backs against the wall rather than being ahead and in control by dictating tempo and possession.
In a real show of character and mentality, it’s a trait that we have to develop as we continue to evolve and work towards becoming a top side capable of competing for silverware, as it’s questionable if we would have turned this around a year ago especially so late into the encounter.
With that in mind, this win could prove to be an important catalyst for our season, but especially in the short term given our run of fixtures in the coming weeks as we now switch our focus to the Europa Conference League which will present more new challenges for us in our pursuit of success.
