What Unai Emery did in response to Austin MacPhee’s annoyance as Ollie Watkins makes a “tough” admission about Aston Villa

What Unai Emery did in response to Austin MacPhee’s annoyance as Ollie Watkins makes a “tough” admission about Aston Villa

Although Aston Villa’s outcome at Bournemouth was not what they had hoped for,

Unai Emery saw the 2-2 result as a point gained rather than two lost.

After 14 games and 29 points gained,

Villa has tied their joint-best start to a Premier League season with that one point they earned back from Birmingham on the south coast.

In the game, Bournemouth twice took the lead,

but Villa answered through goals from Ollie Watkins in the ninetieth minute and Leon Bailey in the first half.

Although Aston Villa’s outcome at Bournemouth was not what they had hoped for,

Unai Emery saw the 2-2 result as a point gained rather than two lost.

Watkins suffered an injury on Wednesday,

just before the team’s Europa Conference League match against Legia Warsaw at Villa Park,

so he was doubtful to play at the Vitality Stadium. His magnificent header made sure Villa maintained some momentum going into a crucial week.

Here are the talking points from Villa’s draw

EMERY AGREES TO THE POINT

League leaders Arsenal visit the second city on Saturday,

while league winners Manchester City visit Villa Park on Wednesday.

Emery’s team has won all 13 of their prior league games played in front of home supporters,

and they have a perfect home record this season.

It is obvious that Villa needs to get better when playing away from home if they hope to make the playoffs this year. Even though Emery’s team lost to Bournemouth,

he was happy to carry a point into the match against City in a few days.

It’s a valid point, he remarked. “We knew it would be challenging to win this time.

When you are losing a match, the point is beneficial to us.

We intend to make use of this point.

Although it was not easy, we preferred to control the game; they had plenty of opportunities,

and our goalie was excellent.”

“We made a mistake early on, but we responded well, and VAR disallowed a goal.

We responded once more to trailing,

and although this was a difficult point to earn in such a difficult game,

we can see that it is a plus.

“We struggled in moments and we were resilient.

We tried to get on the ball and score and we did that. This point is not the best but it is not the worst.

“It is always difficult to play Manchester City [on Wednesday],

they are the best team with the best coach. There is not one coach like Pep Guardiola.”

It’s a valid point, he remarked. “We knew it would be challenging to win this time.

When you are losing a match, the point is beneficial to us.

We intend to make use of this point. Although it was not easy, we preferred to control the game;

they had plenty of opportunities, and our goalie was excellent.”

“We made a mistake early on, but we responded well, and VAR disallowed a goal.

We responded once more to trailing, and although this was a difficult point to earn in such a difficult game,

we can see that it is a plus.

WATKINS ON A “HARD” SCHEDULE

Throughout the game, Emi Martinez made five saves to keep his team in it against Bournemouth.

In both halves, he stopped Domini Solanke from close range.

With his first and only opportunity of the ninety minutes,

Watkins—another one of Villa’s key players—was able to demonstrate his quality thanks to his outstanding performance.

“After the game, I felt like I scored one of my best headers,” Watkins said.

We could have ended it early and we had plenty of opportunities.

“It demonstrates our tenacity, but we are not playing well when we are away from home.

It will benefit us if we can resolve that. We are playing well and want to win every game.

“We see ourselves as opponents to everyone.” Although I’m pleased with my form,

I’m hard on myself because I want to improve.”

“It was crucial that we left with something,” he continued.

Although we didn’t produce much in the first half when it was wide open,

we also didn’t capitalise on it in the second half.

Although it’s difficult to play every few days, that is what we are here to do.

Our away performance hasn’t been up to par, and we are aware of that.

SOLANKE DEPRESSED BY DRAW

Under Andoni Iraola, Bournemouth has unquestionably turned the corner.

The team has now defeated Villa and Newcastle for four points, putting them in contention for the Champions League.

Before playing Villa, they also defeated Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

After the draw with Villa, Solanke remarked,

“It feels like a loss conceding so late but they are a top side playing their best football in years.”

“We are working to create a challenging environment here at the stadium.

We have two more games this week and are enjoying a strong run of play. We feel good about ourselves now.

“I could have had more, but their goalie made some excellent saves.

Right now, we feel like we can win any game because of our confidence.”

Franklin MacPhee Fragmentation

On Sunday, both Villa and Bournemouth won seven corners apiece,

but neither team had any trouble from set pieces.

Emery’s team had multiple opportunities to capitalise on Bournemouth’s dismal set-piece performance,

but wide crosses were unable to break through the hosts’ defence.

Prior to this past weekend, including penalties,

Bournemouth had the lowest number of goals scored (one) and highest number of goals conceded (ten) in the Premier League this season from set pieces.

Following two goals from Douglas Luiz in victories over Tottenham and Legia Warsaw,

Villa has had success from dead ball situations in the last few weeks.

Luiz, positioned in a familiar spot and with John McGinn deliberately offside,

saw one of his crosses go unnoticed by the Bournemouth defence. Due to Luiz and Lucas Digne’s dangerous positioning over a free kick in the first half,

Villa had a chance to take the lead in added time.

MacPhee appeared miffed at what he saw after Luiz struck the wall and Digne missed the rebound badly.

Digne was seen yelling at MacPhee as he returned to his left-back position,

but Emery stepped in and ordered composure.

With MacPhee, who has been a fantastic addition to the club’s backroom staff since he joined back in 2021, Villa works hard on their set pieces.

Once again, KONSA shines.

Since Konsa was positioned to neutralise the threat,

the majority of Bournemouth’s attacks targeted their left flank.

Despite Matty Cash’s absence, Konsa performed admirably as a right-back.

Remarkably, Konsa prevailed in all eleven of his ground duels and all four of his aerial duels.

In addition, he recorded a 100% long ball success rate and finished 100% of the dribbles he attempted.

He completed nine defensive plays, two clearings, five recoveries, and an 83 percent passing accuracy.

Late in first-half added time, the 25-year-old made an incredible tackle to deny Justin Kluivert a shot against Martinez as the Cherries forward went one-on-one.

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