Sky Sports pundit, Gary Neville believes that Aston Villa and their Champions League ambitions are too ambitious given injuries could cause issues.
It has been a great start to the season for Aston Villa which currently sees them in third place. Right now they are one point off top spot and joint with second place.
The transformation of the Villans under Unai Emery has been immense and doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.
Last time out, a chance to go top was missed as they drew 1-1 with Sheffield United at Villa Park. Cameron Archer scored to haunt his former side before Nicolo Zaniolo levelled the scores very late in the day.
The Villans now sit five points clear of Manchester City in fifth place which sees them sit firmly in the Champions League spots. With that being said, Gary Neville doesn’t see Villa securing a spot in the elite competition for next season.
What has Gary Neville said?
It is safe to say that Emery’s side weren’t at their typical best against the Blades which saw them have to rescue a point. At times the play was laboured and slow which saw the ball go side to side most of the time.
Discussing the result post-game, Gary Neville opened up about the Villans’ performance. This has since been transcribed by Goal.com.
On the performance, he said: “They need to be more inventive and more clever. Do different things. Now teams have seen that tonight. I’m not saying it’s the first time that anyone’s played like that against Villa but there was a lot of respect shown to them tonight. They weren’t good enough to break it down.”
It is fair to say that given Villa’s 78% possession, according to FotMob, they should have won the game in the end. With that being said, just four shots on target and 0.86 xG wasn’t enough against poor opposition. Zaniolo’s goal right at the end saved a point which was potentially deserved.
This saw the Villans maintain their spot in the top three but were still frustrated to have not taken all three points. Especially annoying given a chance to move top was there for the taking.
Neville then went on to make a statement regarding Villa’s title and top-four hopes. On that, he said: “They’re very finely tuned so if a few players got injured they would struggle. If they were to finish fifth it would be an incredible result. If they finished above that it would be an absolute miracle. I think they will fade away and we’ll see them fight for that last Champions League space.”
Villa fans don’t share this opinion and are truly optimistic for the season and what it could bring.
