Dan Bardell: Too early to judge Aston Villa growth amid flattest three points ever v Southampton
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
It’s too early to say if Aston Villa have turned a corner after beating Southampton, but four points from the past two games are not to be sniffed at says Dan Bardell.
A miserable run was arrested on 3 September by the massively-improved display against reigning champions Manchester City, where Leon Bailey netted in a 1-1 draw that could easily have been a victory. That was then followed up by an attritional but vital 1-0 win over Saints on 16 September via a solitary Jacob Ramsey strike.
Bardell is naturally pleased with the points but is holding fire on getting too excited just yet due to the manner of the performance last time out.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News on whether the improvement will be lasting he said: “I think it’s probably too early to say at the moment. There’s been some positive steps defensively but I think that’s come at a cost going forward.
“The Manchester City game was very, very impressive. They were very good. Steven Gerrard had a game plan and it worked. As soon as Villa go 1-0 down in that game you think, ‘Uh oh’.
“But they got back into it and in the end arguably could have won it. They ended the game as the better team, so that was a really impressive performance. I think he picked a team that suited the game.
“Ramsey, Bailey and [Ollie] Watkins as the front three, I felt like that was the right front three for that game, with the pace and the directness. And it caused Manchester City problems.
“The next game against Southampton. Obviously they’ve won, but really it just wasn’t a good game, wasn’t a good performance.
“I get what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to solidify them, he’s trying to make them harder to beat, and in Steven Gerrard’s defence they’ve come through that game and won it 1-0.
“But Southampton were awful. Villa were awful. And you just want to see a bit more in games like that. You’re there on a Friday night, you want a bit more of a show and a bit more of a performance .
“They got the three points and it was the flattest I’ve ever felt after three points. Normally I’ll just be happy that they’ve won, but something just didn’t feel right.
“What they did there just isn’t sustainable and against a better team they’d have got opened up and they wouldn’t have got three points.
“But from the last two games you can’t knock four points. They were pretty unfortunate that the Leicester game was postponed as well, because that would have been a good test of where Villa are, but four points from Manchester City and Southampton, you can’t really complain at that.”
It has to be results over performances as the priority currently, but for the revival to lead anywhere long term the style of play has to be an important consideration.
Injuries are a major mitigating factor at the moment, so leading up to the World Cup break it might be necessary to attempt to win ugly for a while.
An unbeaten run, however short it is for now, is an improvement on what went before but it will take a few more points yet to suggest this team is properly on the up.
In other Aston Villa news, Lucas Digne has suffered a suspected stress fracture to his ankle.