‘After a poor start to the season, Aston Villa have started scoring goals, while two of their England stars shone during the international break. However, can they stop the man leading the Premier League assist charts – Mohammed Kudus?…’
Rob Daly, official club commentator, presenter and pundit
Creating – and taking – chances…
Unai Emery’s side failed to score in any of their opening four Premier League matches, playing out goalless draws with Newcastle and Everton, added to defeats to Brentford and Crystal Palace. Chance creation was low too with an xG of 3.1 from those matches total, having fashioned just 4 big chances (by Opta’s metric) as well. Harvey Elliot’s goal against Brentford in the Carabao Cup last month was Villa’s first in 509 competitive minutes. But things have improved thanks to a run of four wins in all competitions having seen off Bologna (1-0), Fulham (3-1), Feyenoord (2-0) and Burnley (2-1).
Malen, Watkins and Rogers…
Perhaps it’s understandable that goals have been harder to come by this season with Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio’s loans ending – while the prolific Jhon Duran was sold in January. However, winger Donyell Malen struck twice to win the match against Burnley before the break in just his fourth league start since a winter move from Borussia Dortmund. Encouraging for Villa too, was some of the link-up play he enjoyed with Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers. Those two meanwhile have been busy on international duty together, with Rogers scoring his first England goal against Wales before setting up Watkins in a 3-0 win. Watkins had to withdraw from Thomas Tuchel’s squad after that game, having injured himself by colliding with the post. Villa’s number 11 recently ended a nine-game goal drought with his smart lobbed finish against Fulham.
