The last few home games have been beyond abject, from back to front, for the Aston Villa team and that was highlighted during the FA Cup defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday night.
It wasn’t so long ago that Unai Emery was watching and masterminding the Aston Villa players to 15 consecutive Premier League home wins.
Fast forward to the present, Newcastle United and Chelsea have turned up to Villa Park and deservedly gone 3-0 up inside an hour.
That has put serious pressure back on the Aston Villa players and it will be at an even higher level when Manchester United come to town on Sunday.
This is where Unai Emery has to put Pau Torres back into the XI following his recent injury issues because he has been a huge miss.
The 27-year-old was an unused substitute against Chelsea and the hope is that he will be ready to start at the weekend.
One of the biggest issues facing Aston Villa has been the form of the centre-backs and their inability to play out from the back, whilst being locked in by the opposition.
Diego Carlos was a walking foul against Chelsea, whilst Clement Lenglet was doing his best Boubacar Kamara impression by continually giving the ball away, and Ezri Konsa is out injured.
The ball isn’t being moved quickly enough, there isn’t any confidence, aside from the 5-0 win over Sheffield United, that lack of bravery isn’t there and that’s where Pau Torres comes into it.
Villa have missed those delightful crossfield balls, or the arrogance just to fire the ball into Ollie Watkins. All of which helps the team build-up play, defend with the ball and attack the opposition.
A lot of that has been missing of late and, hopefully, the return of Pau Torres will put that right.
Calm heads needed
After being unbelievable at home, we have deserved these recent defeats and nobody can argue about the end results.
The issue here is that the team can’t allow it to continue for the Man United game because they will eat us apart.
They are eight points behind in the table and are in much, much better form, with their forward line now producing their best football of the season.
Even a draw would do Villa good here, so whatever happens, the belief needs to come back into the club’s system.
