Aston Villa suffered their first home league defeat in over 11 months on Tuesday evening
Aston Villa’s 17-match unbeaten run at home in the league ended when Newcastle United won 3-1 at Villa Park in what was a desperate performance until the introduction of Leon Bailey
It was Villa’s worst home performance in the league under Unai Emery and his players were the second best on the pitch. Fabian Schar’s double gave Newcastle a 2-0 lead before half-time, but Villa had too much to do when Alex Moreno slotted the ball into his own goal after the break.
Ollie Watkins scored the consolation goal after Bailey set it up in the 71st minute. Moments later, Watkins scored again after Bailey played him in, but the flag was then raised to mark the end.
Here are the insights from Villa’s defeat…BECAUSE EMERY WAS PATIENT WITH BAILEYBailey’s scintillating introduction left fans scratching their heads as to why it took Emery so long to bring him onto the pitch, especially as Moussa Diaby continues to struggle.
The France international had a brilliant chance to open the scoring in the first half, but instead of shooting from a tight angle, he decided to roll the ball across the penalty area.”He had a back problem and wasn’t 100% at Chelsea,” Emery said of Bailey. “I decided to play with the starting eleven we played at Chelsea.
He played very well. I try to be consistent with each player and give him confidence.”The winger created five chances against Newcastle in 28 minutes.
Surprisingly, the most in an entire Premier League match this season is seven, from five different players.BAILEY: THE LEVEL OF THE VILLA HAS NOT DECREASEDBailey is Villa’s most in-form player at the moment and if Watkins had timed his run to perfection to further reduce Villa’s deficit, the winger would have been able to make a remarkable late comeback.
Although he has won just one of his last five league games, Bailey does not believe Villa’s level has dropped. “I couldn’t understand why he was missing tonight,” Bailey told Premier League Productions.
It’s a brilliant team. They play good football and have a brilliant structure.“They were there from the first moment and made us work hard. The first two goals put a lot of pressure on us which we need to come back from.
They played better than us and deserved to be two goals. But in the second half, like Aston Villa, there was hope to get a goal in advance and they understood it.””I wouldn’t say that the level has fallen. This is football.
You have the city that is taking up the games and Arsenal and the teams will be the day.”We just have to bounce and focus on games to change things.
We have to accept the loss and bounce back.”Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery WHAT EMERY TOLD HIS PLAYERS AFTER FULL-TIMEEmery warned his players that Newcastle’s poor form away from home would have little bearing on Tuesday night’s clash and he wasn’t wrong.
Their win at Villa Park was only their second on the road in the league, but it came after a strong performance against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday night. “It is a little frustrating,” Emery admitted to the BBC.
I told the players I feel like tonight had to come one way. “Today we have to accept because they deserve it. They were better in the first 60 minutes. We couldn’t take our chances to get a draw, but we have to accept and remind the players that everything we did here was perfect.
Next we need to fix what we did here.He added to TNT Sports: “In the first half we didn’t control the game the way we wanted.
At first it was obviously because they were playing well and we had to take stock. In the second half we scored the goal and had chances to get close to the second goal, but we have to evaluate the game.“A loss has to happen, and it was today.
We have not lost our perspective. The message is to keep going and try to find comfort in the work we do in general.Goals conceded in standard situationsWhile Newcastle took full advantage of Schar’s opening goal in the 32nd minute, both goals were avoidable and came from corners.
Regarding goals conceded from set pieces, Emery told TNT Sport: “It’s not frustrating because we know they won from two set pieces at Fulham last week.” They are strong.”
More or less we didn’t control the game as we wanted and they became threatening at the back, entering our area and taking corner kicks. After that they scored two goals.
Once again we are frustrated, a little disappointed, but from our point of view we are happy. We have 43 points.
We’ll get to work and try to maintain the distance we have now and then we’ll focus on Saturday.””Newcastle’s strength is in set pieces and that’s how they won at Fulham on Saturday.
At home we conceded more corners than normal and this is the first way we concede a goal from a corner.”We must expect to be able to improve. We must respond tactically.
I am very proud of the players. We are more or less fifth in the standings. Overall, we are satisfied and feel comfortable.
