Analysis: Rare welcome break for Unai Emery's Aston Villa

After two years in which the Spaniard has transformed fortunes and expectations to almost unimaginable degrees, four defeats in the space of 11 days has disrupted momentum and posed doubts as to just how well equipped his team really are to repeat last year’s fourth-placed Premier League finish.

Ironically, for a manager who recently bemoaned the busy nature of the international calendar, the latest break offers valuable time for reflection.

Emery may look at Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Liverpool and consider there is not a huge amount wrong. For much of the night in terms of overall play, Villa matched or even slightly bettered the Premier League leaders, who have now won 15 out of 17 games in all competitions under new boss Arne Slot. The visitors could also count themselves rather unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when Liverpool defender Conor Bradley tugged Pau Torres’ shirt in the box. In general performance, there was a lot Emery’s team got right.

They were condemned to defeat however, due to failings which have dogged them through much of the season, namely an unfortunate knack for gifting the opposition goals through basic mistakes, while simultaneously letting teams off the hook with a collective lack of conviction in attack. At this point of the campaign, it is fair to question which end of the pitch will be giving Emery the greatest concern?

It was Villa’s defending which took the headlines on Saturday, after they contrived to concede twice on the counter attack and were fortunate it wasn’t more. Darwin Nunez rounded Emi Martinez before firing home Liverpool’s opener, just 10 seconds after Youri Tielemans had taken a corner at the other end of the pitch and then let Villa off the hook by blazing over when the exact same thing happened just minutes later. 

It then needed a superb last-ditch challenge from Ezri Konsa to cut out another lightening fast counter from a second half Villa corner, before Mo Salah eventually made the game safe having been presented the ball by the visiting team’s deepest-lying player, Diego Carlos, and racing clear six minutes from time.

That moment summed up Carlos’ own season to date as a generally strong individual display was tarnished by an easily avoidable blunder leading directly to a goal. From the Brazilian centre-back, there have simply been too many of those.

Yet Carlos is hardly the only player guilty of making daft errors. Attacking set pieces had been a big factor in Villa’s success over the early months of the season and it required a couple of fine saves from Caoimhin Kelleher, who denied both Amadou Onana and Carlos in quick succession, to prevent them adding to their goal tally here. 

Yet when Villa got their execution wrong, it played directly into the hands of a Liverpool team set up for the quick counter and who otherwise looked short of ideas as to how to break the visitors down. Remarkably, Villa had already conceded once and then nearly again before Konsa dropped deep to cover for their third corner of the night. This was high-risk, high punishment stuff.

Villa have now conceded 10 goals in their last six Premier League matches, winning only one and the clean sheet in last month’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United remains their sole league shut-out of the campaign.

It will be difficult to sustain a challenge for the top-four, or even the top-seven should Villa keep needing to score at least twice to win a game, doubly so if their attack remains so disjointed as it has been over recent weeks.

Other than Onana and Carlos’ headers from corners, Emery’s men failed to force Kelleher into any more serious work despite getting into good positions countless times. Their efforts were best summed up inside the final 20 minutes when Jaden Philogene, having driven into the box, suddenly seemed to freeze and was comfortably dispossessed. 

The young winger was not alone in running right into trouble. Leon Bailey, whose loss of form is becoming a bigger concern by the week, also seemed at a complete loss in the final third. Morgan Rogers sliced a glorious chance badly wide, Jacob Ramsey suddenly became ponderous having shown great feet to create a shooting angle with the game at 0-0, while Jhon Duran’s impact was minimal after replacing a frustrated Ollie Watkins off the bench.

It is understandable the latter pair should carry the burden for goalscoring but Villa need more from the supporting cast.

This was the third time in 11 Premier League matches Villa had failed to score. They were shut out only five times in the whole of last season. Bailey and John McGinn, who scored a combined 16 league goals between them last term, are still to get off the mark this time around.

Emery may conclude that if his attacking players keep getting into good positions, then eventually something will click. Having lost at Tottenham and Liverpool, the domestic fixture list on the other side of the international break is somewhat softer on paper, with home matches against Crystal Palace, Brentford and Southampton in the first two weeks. 

Struggle in those fixtures and it will be time to consider whether Villa, who should see Matty Cash and Ross Barkley return but may lose Ramsey and Boubacar Kamara to injury, are suffering any deeper malaise. For now the tightness of a league in which Liverpool are the only team to show any consistency offers cause for optimism, albeit Emery heads into the international fortnight knowing there are issues to address.