Five key talking points as Villa secure crucial win over Brentford
Aston Villa earned a hard-fought win over Brentford this weekend to boost our hopes of Champions League qualification.
After the high of our win away at Club Brugge in midweek in our Champions League tie, Villa were able to follow that up with three fundamental points in the Premier League to build momentum.
Ollie Watkins emerged as the match-winner as his 49th-minute effort was all that split the two sides, with Villa digging deep to see out the game and return home with the win.
In turn, it moves us up to seventh place for the time being, just a point adrift of fifth spot, but results elsewhere will have to go our way as we look to continue to make up ground on our rivals and seal a top-five finish.
Finally, a much-improved defensive display
It’s been a long time coming, but Villa were able to produce a more robust and organised defensive display in this game to keep a welcomed clean sheet.
That in turn set the foundation for us to go on and win the game, and while there were excellent individual performances across the backline, collectively, we performed at the level required to shut the opposition out.
Given we were without Emiliano Martinez, it was a brilliant outcome, and it’s hoped that having found a better balance and shown the discipline needed to keep things tighter at the back, this can start a run of becoming more difficult to break down.
Disasi puts in a pivotal shift
Prior to kick-off, admittedly there was concern over starting Axel Disasi at right-back, particularly with both Andres Garcia and Matty Cash on the bench.
We’ve seen previously how playing a more natural centre-half in that position can disrupt our balance both defensively and offensively, but Disasi deserves plenty of credit, and earned his Man of the Match award.
The Frenchman was solid in his defensive work and produced some decisive interventions, which was reflected in the way he celebrated them. Composed in possession to get us moving up the pitch too, it was a really impressive shift as he continues to make a positive impression during his loan spell.
Credit to Olsen for filling in effectively
Similarly to Disasi, Robin Olsen was widely praised after the game too as the Swedish stalwart came in for Martinez, and despite a lack of playing time and having been questioned throughout most of his time with us, he stepped up and delivered.
While it wasn’t always pretty or perfect as he had some worrying moments, the Villa goalkeeper made some key stops and played an important role in helping us keep a clean sheet.
The scenes after the full-time whistle showed how popular he is amongst his teammates in the dressing room as they all pushed him to celebrate and take in the applause from the travelling Villa supporters, and it was a lovely moment that he earned.
Watkins silences the boo-boys
Despite insisting that his celebration in this fixture last season was aimed at one particular Brentford fan who had been giving him abuse during the game, the home fans opted to boo Watkins at every opportunity in this outing.
Given he has previously expressed his respect and love for his former club, who played an important part in his development prior to his move to join us, it was a shame to hear Watkins get that negative reaction throughout the encounter.
Nevertheless, although it was a muted celebration, the Villa man had the last laugh with the winning goal as he continued his excellent record against Brentford, and although he should have doubled his tally, and our lead, in the latter stages, he’ll hopefully take confidence from being our match-winner.
Morale and belief boost at a critical point in Villa’s season
It could be argued that had Villa lost this game, it could have spelt the end of our push for a top-five finish in the Premier League this season.
Although it’s still tight in the top half of the standings, teams around us still have games in hand and we’ve got to play catch up, but with our participation in the Champions League and FA Cup, Emery could have looked at the situation and had to prioritise those competitions if he felt we were too far off the pace.
Instead, we’ve put ourselves right back in the mix with the three points, and although the points above still apply in that we could be looking to close a big gap again depending on how results elsewhere go, we’ve built morale and belief in our ability to go away from home and get a result, and we’re right in the mix to try and achieve our objective in the league too.
It certainly won’t be easy with trips to Brighton, Man City and Bournemouth still to come while we host Nottingham Forest, Newcastle Utd, Fulham and Tottenham as well, but this win comes at a critical time to keep that hope alive entering the run-in.
