Aston Villa were held to a goalless draw against 10-man West Ham United on Monday night, with Dean Smith’s side producing a poor display in front of their own supporters.
Whilst it was a lively opening, in the second half, and especially after the away team were reduced to 10-men, Villa’s performance levels dipped by some margin.
Here we take a look at three things we learned from that fixture as Villa have now recorded four points from their opening five Premier League matches:
Attack becoming a problem? Villa have found the back of the net on four occasions this season, but on Monday it didn’t look like they were ever going to add to that tally. Striker Wesley was left isolated, the wingers are out-of-form and the midfielders are being asked to do too much of the work. It’s an area that Smith needs to resolve, and with it resolve quickly because they need that extra bite in the final third.
Composure needed – Another part of Villa’s game that the players need to improve on is their composure on the ball. From the defensive-minded players to the attack-minded players, the decision-making, the rashness from the players was on show against the Hammers. The players need to learn to relax and that perhaps comes with experience and more confidence. But they need more points on the board for that to happen!
Engels gets better & better – There weren’t many positives to come out of the West Ham game, but one that did was the performance of centre-back Bjorn Engels. Talking about composure, he showcased that in abundance on Monday. Not only that, once again, he is proving that he might just be a high-quality defender because his ability to read the game and sense danger is of high quality.
