Aston Villa left it late but stormed back from behind to secure a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, with three goals deep into the latter stages of the encounter.
Despite dominating most of the first half, Villa fell behind to the visitors shortly after the restart having been caught out on a quick counter attack, with Emiliano Martinez slipping at a vital moment after some poor defending in front of him.
Sign up for the Talk Villa newsletter, a free weekly Villa round-up delivered straight to you!
That seemed to shake Villa as we lost our composure and looked a little ragged for most of the second half, as we struggled to find our rhythm again and impose our style on the game.
However, substitute Jhon Duran scored a stunning goal in the 87th minute to spark the comeback, and a Douglas Luiz penalty and Leon Bailey goal completed the turnaround in added time.
It was an enthralling victory as Villa made it nine Premier League home wins in a row, and it was a huge result as we enter a key run of fixtures across all competitions in the next fortnight.
Naturally, there will be aspects of the performance that Unai Emery will not be happy with, but he was unsurprisingly pleased with the outcome having seen his side battle back.
“Yes of course today was a difficult match like every one is,” he told BBC MOTD. “We played very well, created chances and didn’t concede a lot in our box. But we didn’t score [in the first half].
“We played a lot [of other matches] like today and were winning in the first 20 or so minutes. We said at half time to keep going and controlling the game like we were doing. They have a very good team and good players and they did that transition and scored the goal. Then it was a difficult moment.
“We were playing more with our hearts than with our minds in the last 20 minutes and sometimes you need that. At the end we deserved to win. We scored three goals so I’m very happy because after their goal it was a difficult moment and we really reacted very well.
“Jhon Duran is young but he has potential. We have to work with him, give him chances and minutes to take confidence and build experiences. Every minute he’s playing is important for him and he’s helping us, like with the goal he scored today.
“I respect always the VAR decision so I was waiting.
“We want to play every minute here and to enjoy it. We want to be competitive, to learn and build our team with the players. I am very happy because this three points today is because every player involved – those in the starting XI or on the bench – helped us with good impact.”
It was a fascinating challenge for us given we had to probe and find a way to break through a stubborn Palace defensive line, and having fallen behind and forced to chase the game in the latter stages, it was important that we found the solution.
Ultimately, we did exactly that, and it’s a win that hopefully boosts confidence and belief amongst the group as well as gives us experience on how to deal with those situations in the best way possible.
There will undoubtedly be improvements needed moving forward to make it more convincing, but having come back after the international break with a much-needed win, it hopefully sets the foundation for a big run of results in the coming weeks.
