That was a damaging defeat for Aston Villa against Manchester United on Sunday, with the team well and truly opening the Champions League door to their rivals.
Unlike the defeats to Newcastle United and then Chelsea in the FA Cup, Unai Emery can be pleased with how his players performed because they did everything right, other than putting the ball into the back of the net.
That was highlighted by Stephen Warnock, who shared how the form and performances of Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby have dipped of late for Aston Villa, as he told BBC Sport.
The former left-back thinks Ollie Watkins has gone from ‘over-performing to under-performing with his expected goals’.
The 28-year-old has scored 11 Premier League goals this season, but he only has two goals from his last seven league games.
Then there is Moussa Diaby, who Stephen Warnock thinks has been struggling for much longer, with Unai Emery using him from the bench a lot more.
He did look lively from the bench against Manchester United, with many surprised that Leon Bailey was subbed off, even though the duo were looking dangerous together.
Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby
“Villa have not suddenly started playing badly, despite some poor results recently. The biggest difference now, compared to the start of the season, is they are not taking their chances in close games,” said Warnock.
“Up front, Ollie Watkins is going through a bit of a spell where things are not quite falling for him in front of goal, when they were earlier. Watkins has only scored twice in his past seven Premier League appearances, compared to the nine goals he managed in his first 17 league games of the season.
“He is getting the same number of chances per game, but his shot conversion has almost halved and he has gone from over-performing to under-performing with his expected goals.
“Behind Watkins, Moussa Diaby’s form has dipped too, and he has been involved far less.
He started Villa’s first 13 league games of the season but, although he has appeared in all 15 games they have played in all competitions since the start of December, he has come off the bench in eight of them. They have missed having him at his best, but they are still creating opportunities – as we saw against United, when they had enough chances to win the game.”
Aston Villa need to bounce back
Look, everything that is going wrong, is going wrong and has been going wrong. From the defeats to the crushing injury news involving Boubacar Kamara.
It just makes an already injury-hit squad weaker, but the team can’t feel sorry for themselves because they have Champions League football to fight for.
The attack, other than Emi Buendia and Jhon Duran, is still very strong. If this is a case of having to outscore teams because the defence is much weaker, then so be it.
There are more than enough goals across the team for that to happen, it’s just a case of the forward players now finding their best form again because it’s needed more than ever.
