View: Foul start among three things learned in Aston Villa draw v Leeds United
Aston Villa were held to a goalless draw by Leeds United as Steven Gerrard’s side claimed their first away point of the Premier League season.
The Villans made most of the running late in the game as Luis Sinisterra saw red for the Whites after getting awarded a second yellow card for foolishly blocking a free-kick while clearly not 10 yards away from the ball.
Philippe Coutinho came close to breaking the deadlock as he hit the post moments later while Leeds’ efforts were mostly confined to the first half of the match while they still had 11 men on the field of play.
Gerrard will be disappointed not to claim all three points against 10 players but at least content with a first point away from home after three successive defeats. Here is what we learned from Sunday’s clash.
Foul start
The manager must have sent his side out to be as combative as they could because Villa began the game with a series of fouls that got the Elland Road crowd, and the Leeds players, suitably riled up from the off.
They were fortunate to do so many of these challenges early in the game when Stuart Attwell was looking to let things slide where he could because it soon descended into chaos.
More injuries
Lucas Digne missed the game through injury, and could be out until after the World Cup, which saw Ludwig Augustinsson make his debut for Aston Villa but it didn’t last long.
The Swede went down in the first half and had to be taken off in place of Jan Bednarek to leave even more problems for Gerrard to deal with.
Away day blues
One point is more than none away from home but that number is still far too low considering trips to Bournemouth and Leeds are already checked off.
Villa are putting an awful lot of pressure on their home form at Villa Park with their inability to find a way to win on the road and it isn’t going to last for long.
In other Aston Villa news, the BBC have been asking Premier League clubs about their payment of staff and there is some worrying answer from the Midlands.