Well, that was a defeat Aston Villa fans will want to forget pretty quickly.
As soon as Unai Emery announced the starting XI against Manchester City, you knew this would be a very difficult evening against the Premier League title-chasers.
The number of players that were missing from the starting XI was pretty ridiculous, either injured, ill, suspended or being rotated because of the heavy schedule coming up.
It doesn’t make things easier, it just puts things into context with Phil Foden denting Aston Villa’s top-four hopes by guiding his team to a 4-1 win and scoring a hat-trick.
Despite the inexperience of Villa’s team, at one point, when Jhon Duran equalised, you felt there was a chance and something might be on the cards.
But that didn’t last too long because, on the stroke of half-time, Foden scored the first of his three goals via a free-kick.
Shay Given slammed Villa’s wall, especially Nicolo Zaniolo, for how they set up because it gifted the home team a goal and allowed them to go into the break 2-1 ahead, as he told Premier League Productions (03/04/24 at 10:25 pm).
The former goalkeeper stated that Zaniolo turning his back when the shot was taken was ‘criminal’ as he slammed the player for ‘waving his arms’ and seemingly blaming others as soon as it happened.
From then on, things went from bad to worse, but you just feel Foden’s opening goal could have been avoided, big time!
Nicolo Zaniolo v Manchester City
“The timing of it as well, it’s on the stroke of half-time,” said Given
“The Villa wall. You think Phil’s (Foden) going around it because he is good enough to bend around it. But you see Zaniolo on the side, he turns his back on it. That’s criminal and it’s right on the stroke of half-time.
“If you had to take one in the face, the stomach or the private parts, or whatever it has to be. You have to stop the ball from going in. I don’t know who he is waving his arms at because he should only be looking at himself, at this point.”
Nicolo Zaniolo’s loan deal
There is a reason why the 24-year-old is on loan at Villa and doesn’t have a permanent home to his name.
You can see the talent, but it’s too rough, inexperienced and unreliable.
The thing here is that Zaniolo has still scored some important goals for Villa this season and it wouldn’t be a surprise if that continued during the run-in.
It’s just a case of Emery making sure he doesn’t start games anymore because he simply can’t be trusted during such a very important part of the season for Villa.
