Aston Villa’s Champions League hangover strikes again in West Ham draw
Aston Villa’s Champions League hangover strikes again in West Ham draw
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Unai Emery was adamant that playing between two Champions League games would never affect his team’s intensity, although there is clearly a good time to catch Aston Villa this season. They have now failed to win in the last six matches after playing in Europe.
On top of this, he suggested after this draw that his striker, Jhon Durán, has been distracted by a recent bid from their opponents West Ham, who grabbed a point through Emerson Palmieri’s header in the second half. Dining at the top table has taken its toll on Villa, with dropped points against Bournemouth, crisis-hit Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Fulham and now West Ham. In this case, they had the added distraction of playing Celtic on Wednesday, with commemorative scarves sold outside the stadium days before the fixture.
Without those dropped points, Emery’s team would surely be knocking on the door of the top four, with fifth place also a possible entry to the elite this season depending on Uefa coefficients. Villa will probably be in the mix for that given their home form – they are unbeaten in 11 on their own patch.
But this was a missed opportunity for them having looked in total control of the match in the first 20 minutes. They only had Jacob Ramsey’s goal to show for their blistering start, with the midfielder exchanging passes with Ollie Watkins before breezing past Vladimir Coufal and finding the bottom corner.
