Former Everton and Chelsea man, Pat Nevin has opened up about Aston Villa and their performance in the win vs Manchester City.
The great start to the season continued for Aston Villa as they secured a 1-0 win over Manchester City this week.
It is safe to say that Unai Emery got the better of his compatriot as his side dominated for large spells of the game.
The win came courtesy of a deflected Leon Bailey effort although the Villans deserved to score more than just the one.
Despite having less possession, Villa had 11 times more shots than their opponents and have been highly praised since. This has seen the football world sit up and take notice even more of Emery’s men.
What has Pat Nevin said?
Pat Nevin was a winger in the 80s and 90s for many clubs including Everton and Chelsea where he made over 300 combined appearances.
The former Scotland international has opened up about Aston Villa’s performance while speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live. Nevin was especially impressed with the Villa backline as they kept their fourth Premier League clean sheet.
Considering the Villans were up against the deadliest striker in the world they did extremely well. On that, Nevin said: “You think about it, there were very, very few opportunities if any for Haaland, certainly in the second half, nothing, absolutely not a sniff.
“They didn’t have any players up there helping him either, he had a tough time, but he was up against two players on great form.”
Haaland could only manage two shots that came within seconds of each other in the first half. Given that Villa saw out the rest of the game with no shots on goal is quite unbelievable.
On who impressed him most, Nevin continued to say: “Pau Torres. Pau was absolutely magnificent at the back, maybe second only to Ezri Konsa who was very, very, very special as well.”
It is safe to say the whole backline for Villa was superb but given their performance, Torres and Konsa were worth the praise. They were very good both on and off the ball throughout the game and limited the City attack to precious little.
If they can perform like that for the rest of the season, and beyond, the Villans title charge will be well and truly alive for a while that is safe to say.
