Why Aston Villa can’t score – and how Europe can save their season

Unai Emery’s Aston Villa have been unable to score a goal so far this season (Picture: Metro/Getty)

In the seventh instalment of Metro’s In The Mixer, we’re looking at why Aston Villa are struggling in the Premier League this season. Sign up to receive this, plus exclusive analysis, insights and transfer talk straight to your inbox every week.

Spare a thought for Aston Villa fans this weekend, who face a trip to Sunderland with the hope that they can finally score a goal after five blanks in a row. 

Unai Emery’s side have had a poor start to the season – an opening day draw with Newcastle who were in existential crisis mode was followed by back to back losses against a Brentford side who lost their two top scorers, captain and manager over the summer and Crystal Palace, whose main signing at the time was a backup left back. 

Add an uninspiring draw (which could have easily been a loss) against a resurgent Everton last weekend and it doesn’t make for pretty reading.

Villa are one of a number of sides who have pointed at PSR rules as a reason for struggling to make many additions to their squad during the summer.

Only Evann Guessand came in as a major permanent signing to provide backup to Ollie Watkins, while last season’s loan signings of Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio are replaced this year by Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott and Jadon Sancho.

Harvey Elliott will be key to ensuring Villa turn around their form (Picture: Getty)

Elliott will join on a permanent deal next season, but Villa’s attempts at building a Champions League level squad in recent years have come up against a number of issues.

Villa have spent big on players like Moussa Diaby (sold to Saudi Arabia), Ian Maatsen (backup left back), Amadou Onana (struggled with injuries) and Pau Torres (second choice to Tyrone Mings).

Men’s young PFA Players’ Player of the Year Morgan Rogers is one of Villa’s recent success stories (Picture: Getty)

The club have relied on a core group of 5/6 players in the last few seasons – a group that seems to be fading.

Only one player who played more than 2,000 minutes for Villa last season was under 26, in Morgan Rogers.

Villa have one of the oldest sides in the league too, with the average age of their starting XIs this season above 28.

With a relatively thin squad and packed fixture list, it could spell more trouble for Emery this season.

It is far too early to come to any concrete conclusions about where they will end up, especially as Emery’s sides tend to be streaky, but failure to pick up points in their next few games against Sunderland, Fullham and Burnley would be disastrous.

After that they face Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool.

Ollie Watkins has had two shots on target this season. (Picture: Getty)

Why are Aston Villa struggling to score? 

They aren’t creating enough chances. Villa’s ten shots on target so far this season puts them 15th in the league, only ahead of the three promoted sides, Fulham and Nottingham Forest. 

Emery’s side play a very structured game which relies on creating space for their forwards to run into by holding onto possession at the back and drawing teams onto them. 

However, this season teams have tended to sit in a lower defensive line to force Villa to try break them down, and aren’t creating enough opportunities for Ollie Watkins as a result.  

Last season, Villa created the 4th most ‘big chances’ in the league, averaging three a game. This season? Just four so far, or one a game.  

Add to that the fact that Villa have one of the worst defences in the league so far and it’s no real surprise they are yet to win a game.

Despite Emery’s apparent love for Marco Bizot, holding onto Emi Martinez for the rest of the season should help restore some confidence to the rest of the defence.

Martinez had his head turned by a potential move to Manchester United during the summer, but remains in goal for Villa (Picture: Getty)

Should Aston Villa focus on the Europa League? 

Although it wasn’t Ange Postecolgou’s intention to sack off the league to aim for European success last season, things worked out pretty well for Tottenham.

Despite finishing 17th in the league, they won a trophy and qualified for the Champions League as well.

Emery is a specialist in Europe, and Aston Villa are comfortably one of the best sides in this year’s Europa League – winning it should be the number one aim for a side whose last trophy came by winning the League Cup in 1996.

Emery last won the Europa League in 2021 with Villarreal, after beating Manchester United in the final (Picture: Getty)

The Spaniard’s enviable record in the competition consists of eight seasons, five finals and four wins.

So while the immediate focus for Emery will be scoring their first goal of the season, if the next few games don’t go to plan he could be relying on success in Europe to save his season, and potentially his job.

Comments