Matt Maher analysis: Finish line in sight and the race is Aston Villa’s to lose
As Unai Emery has been keen to stress, Villa have achieved nothing yet.
But in the race for Champions League football, it increasingly feels like they have done the hard part.
Yesterday’s win over Bournemouth moved them six points clear in fourth place and though their rivals Tottenham have two matches in hand, it now very much feels like Villa’s position to lose.
Less than 72 hours after a dramatic Europa Conference League win in Lille, Unai Emery’s men once more dug deep to come from behind and beat the Cherries in their 50th match of a season which could yet have a glorious conclusion on two fronts.
Not even the blow of falling behind to Dominic Solanke’s 31st-minute penalty could halt Villa, who equalised through the excellent Morgan Rogers on the stroke of half-time and then – just as they had a week previously at Arsenal – took command in the second half.
Goals from Moussa Diaby and Leon Bailey, with his 10th Premier League strike of the season, earned Villa their 20th Premier League win of a campaign which has also seen them amass their biggest points total since 1992-93, when Ron Atkinson’s team finished second but played 42 matches.
Seven of those victories have come on Sundays following European matches on Thursday nights. All told, Villa have taken 24 points from 12 such games this season, losing only twice, all while dealing with chronic injury troubles of which Nicolo Zaniolo yesterday became the latest victim.
That makes the manner in which Emery’s players have made a mockery of the common view playing in Europe will harm your league campaign all the more remarkable.
If anything, the hectic schedule seems to have enhanced Villa. Yesterday was their seventh match in 22 days. It is a run which has seen only one defeat, at champions Manchester City, with the 3-3 draw at home to Brentford the only true setback.
