Anthony Onifade

Tue 26 December 2023 22:50, UK

Aston Villa star John McGinn left Amazon Prime pundit and Portugal manager Roberto Martinez wowed after a “wonderful” moment against Manchester United but his all-round display completely failed to live up to the billing.

Aston Villa missed the chance to go level on points with Liverpool at the Premier League summit as they let a two-goal lead slip to lose 3-2 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Tuesday (26 December).

Rasmus Hojlund scored his first Premier League goal for Manchester United after playing 1027 minutes in the competition to complete a dramatic comeback.

Aston Villa raced into a two-goal lead in the first half after goals from McGinn and Leander Dendoncker but completely imploded after half-time with two goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Hojlund compounded Villa to their first league defeat since the start of November at Nottingham Forest.

The result means the Villans missed the chance to go level on points with Liverpool after their 2-0 win over Burnley earlier in the evening, now sitting three points behind Jurgen Klopp’s men in third.

Villa Park favourite McGinn was the main protagonist for the Villans’ first-half dominance after his brilliant deliveries allowed Aston Villa to pull 2-0 up before half-time.

His cross into the box from a free-kick completely dumbfounded the United defence before beating Andre Onana and soon afterwards it was his sublime cross that allowed Clement Lenglet the room and freedom of Manchester to assist Leander Dendoncker for Villa’s second.

At half-time, McGinn’s cross left Martinez stunned after it found Lenglet perfectly at the back-post. Speaking at half-time live on Amazon Prime (26 December, 21:00 pm), he said: “It’s a very difficult ball for the goalkeeper, if he comes out – I don’t think Onana is the sort of goalkeeper who would just come out and give a dominance.”

“Let’s appreciate the good things about Aston Villa first, it’s a wonderful delivery, great strategy you can see the three centre-halves in a cluster and it just gives Lenglet a free header.”

Indeed, it was two beautiful deliveries from McGinn who certainly looked to have enjoyed a stark improvement from his very underwhelming display against Sheffield United on 22 December.

As per SofaScore, McGinn registered two key passes, completed just 50 per cent of his two dribble attempts, completed just one of his four crosses, lost possession of the ball 23 times and won just three of his 13 ground duels at a torrid 23 per cent.

However, despite the glowing praise from Martinez at half-time, it seemed to knock McGinn back down to size as he and his teammates simply wilted from the unrelenting pressure and fightback from Manchester United at a stadium Unai Emery simply can’t buy a win at.

The Scotland international will have been expected to lead from the front once the Red Devils grabbed one back but McGinn was nowhere to be seen in midfield ad Bruno Fernandes and co ran riot.

McGinn completed 72% of his passes, and won 100 per cent of his aerial duels but only won two of his seven duels at a disappointing success rate of 28 per cent, completed just 33 per cent of his dribbles, and 33 per cent of his crosses.

The Villa Park midfielder missed a huge chance to give the Villans a 3-2 seeing his effort in the six-yard brilliantly blocked by Jonny Evans on the line. In all fairness, it was a pretty poor shot with McGinn failing to ready himself.

In the end, it proved a very poor display from the ever-reliable Scotsman but he certainly wasn’t alone as many of his senior teammates also wilted under the pressure.

With games coming thick and fast in this busy end-of-year period in the Premier League, McGinn and his Aston Villa teammates will be looking to put this one behind them starting against Burnley on Saturday (30 December).

In other Aston Villa news, a star player has justified his British record price tag already this season.