Aston Villa’s poor form continued against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Unai Emery’s side are now winless in six matches in all competitions and the man in the dugout is trying to find a way to change his team’s fortunes around.
Last month, Crystal Palace beat Villa in the EFL Cup – yes, that was a much-changed side – but the previous threat was there for all to see.
But, once again, by the full-time whistle, there was frustration in the crowd as Villa recorded a 2-2 draw against Palace.
The same issues reared their ugly heads again, from missing guilt-edge chances, including Youri Tielemans’ watching his penalty being saved at 1-1 and the defence leaking goals for fun.
Whilst Aston Villa will be kicking themselves at that missed penalty, the away side might be even more frustrated because they led twice and then watched Emiliano Martinez showcase his brilliance towards the end.
Oliver Glasner hails Emi Martinez after Aston Villa 2-2 Crystal Palace
After 12 matches, Villa have conceded 19 goals and, quite a lot of the time, you look towards your goalkeeper.
But Martinez hasn’t done much wrong, it’s the defence in front of him that’s the issue.
At 2-2 and with ten minutes left on the clock, the game turned into an end-to-end encounter and Palace thought they had won the game.
Jeffrey Schlupp’s low driving shot was heading into the bottom corner, but somehow, Martinez dived to his left and palmed it away.
Glasner labelled that moment as ‘unbelievable’ and thinks it stopped his side from winning the match, as he told Match of the Day.
“Playing like this makes me proud,” said Glasner. “I think also a win could have been possible. An unbelievable save from Martinez right at the end.”
What Martinez said after Villa’s draw to Palace
Only one Premier League clean sheet for Villa and Martinez, you can bet your bottom dollar that there isn’t a more frustrated man than the the Argentine himself.
Thankfully, Villa’s Champions League performances look better and, amazingly enough, only one goal conceded so far and that was that bizarre Tyrone Mings penalty.
After the Palace game, Martinez took to Instagram to send a message to the fans and how the team ‘battled back well’.
“Not the result we wanted but we battled back well,” said Martinez. “Thank you for the support!! #UTV.”
