McGinn see’s red as Spurs thrash Villa

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·11 March 2024

McGinn see’s red as Spurs thrash Villa

It was built up as the biggest game in Aston Villa’s recent history. Fans were excited and even the players spoke about how important the game was.

Some will point towards John McGinn seeing red but for me, that was just part of the problem. Tottenham Hotspur came to Villa Park with a game plan and I am sure it played out a lot better than they could have ever expected.

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In truth, the performance on the pitch was as flat as the performance from the supporters in the stand. I have spoken in the past about creating an us vs the world mentality and I believe we need this more than ever. The race for the top four is far from over but it is no longer in our hands I am expecting plenty of twists and turns in the final 10 Premier League games.

It’s difficult to be too harsh on the players because we are clearly overperforming and we have had a very good season, so far. The issue is, that having a good season so far doesn’t guarantee us Champions League football any more than it does guarantee us silverware. Unai Emery has eluded more than once that it’s the final third of the season that counts and we need to stand up and be counted.

Report: Aston Villa 0-4 Tottenham Hotspur

Emery surprised many when he named a back five, knowing avoiding a defeat would leave Villa in control. It wasn’t something I agreed with as I felt we should have tried to take the game to Tottenham, especially being the home side.

It was a cagey opening forty-five minutes as both teams cancelled each other out with not a single shot on target being registered.

The only chance worth discussing would be when McGinn picked out Lucas Digne just before the break but the Frenchman headed wide.

The visitors had bad news after the break when Micky van de Ven pulled up with a hamstring injury but their fortunes soon changed when they scored from the first shot on target after 50 minutes.

Pape Sarr picked out James Maddison with an inch-perfect cross to make it 0-1 and moments later they were in dreamland as they doubled their lead.

Ezri Konsa lost out to Son Heung-min who played through Brennan Johnson which was a real blow for the home side.

To make matters worse, captain McGinn was then sent off for a frustrating challenge on Destiny Udogie. Was red harsh? Maybe the reaction from the opposition bench and players didn’t help the situation but it summed up Villa’s day.

Things continued to get worse for Villa when Dejan Kulusevski found Son to make it three. And to top it off, substitute Timo Werner made it four late after being teed up by Son just finish the rowt.

What the managers said

Emery: “We compete very well in the first half, there weren’t very many chances from them.

“We weren’t clinical because they were defending very well and we didn’t control the game. The match was controlled more or less in the plan we prepared.

“In the second half, the first two goals were crazy. After the red card it was more difficult to get a result.

“Now we are thinking of Thursday. We have a very good match against Ajax, that is our focus.”

Ange Postecoglou: “I think we made it tough for Aston Villa, they worked hard just to contain us. Last 10 minutes of the second half you could already see them starting to tire a little bit.

“We just had to continue to do that and we got our rewards in the second half.

“The next step for us is to maintain a consistency of quality performances.”