Diego Carlos has no case for the defence and another slow away start – Three things learned from Aston Villa draw v at Bournemouth
Aston Villa left it late to grab a 2-2 draw at Bournemouth on Sunday (3 December) to keep hold of fourth spot in the Premier League.
The visitors twice had to come from behind at the Vitality Stadium, with Leon Bailey cancelling out Antoine Semenyo’s opener only for Dominic Solanke to restore the lead just after the break.
However, Ollie Watkins was Villa’s hero again with a brilliant last-gasp header in an otherwise quiet outing from the England striker to earn a share of the spoils.
Here are three things Villa News learned after the draw on the south coast.
Diego Carlos has no case for the defence
It was a pretty turgid defensive display from Aston Villa truth be told, but Diego Carlos was arguably the biggest culprit in the visiting defence.
In stats provided by SofaScore, the Brazilian centre-back finished the match with one error that led to a goal and gave away possession on 12 occasions – including playing just four of 10 accurate long passes.
Carlos won his one ground duel but lost two of four in the air. He blocked one shot, made one tackle, and one interception – but he was far from his best, with SofaScore giving him a rating of only 6.3.
Emi to the rescue
While those in front of him really struggled to make much of an impact on proceedings, Emi Martinez was arguably the man of the match for Villa, scoring a 7.9 on SofaScore.
The Argentine stopper made five saves in total, and had a goals prevented rate of 1.02, proof that he excelled despite Villa’s overall troubles.
He also finished with one high claim, had an 84 per cent pass accuracy success rate and nine of his 14 long balls were accurate. It was an assured display on a day when he needed to be on form.
Slow away starts
Villa have been mightily impressive this season but they do have a bit of a nasty habit of starting slowing away from home.
In eight Premier League fixtures played away from home this season, Villa have now fallen behind in six of those fixtures on their travels.
With three wins, three defeats and two draws on the road it is hardly time to panic, but it is an area that Unai Emery will likely want to address moving forward.
In other Aston Villa news, here are our player ratings from the Bournemouth fixture.