Unai Emery is facing his toughest test at Aston Villa yet.
Life in the Champions League is going pretty well, but Aston Villa are falling down the Premier League table at a worrying rate.
On Sunday afternoon, Villa were beaten 3-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, with the London club blowing the Midlands side away.
You are trying to work out what is more worrying – the leaky defence that has shipped 22 goals in 13 games or not scoring in four of the last five matches.
It’s a far cry from what Aston Villa were last season because they haven’t won in eight matches in all competitions.
The problem with the performance against Chelsea is that there wasn’t even a fight because, after seven minutes, the home team were ahead.
Nicolas Jackson with his first proper effort on goal was wheeling away in celebration, with the marking inside the box and the inability to stop the cross being pretty woeful.
There were some suggestions that Emi Martinez should have saved the effort, but Michael Owen didn’t want to go down that road.
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Michael Owen refuses to criticise Emi Martinez as Aston Villa lose to Chelsea
Jackson’s effort went to Martinez’z right hand side and at his near side. Villa’s number one got a hand to that effort, before it kissed the post and went in.
Martinez went off injured at half-time and proceeded to concede again just before he went off when Enzo Fernandez fired the ball into the bottom corner.
But, with Joe Hart standing next to Owen, the former striker didn’t want to delve further into Martinez not saving the opening effort, as he told Premier League Productions (01/12/24 at 2:25 pm).
“I think this is his (Jackson’s) eighth Premier League goal, he is doing particularly well,” said Owen. “Nice little angle there and a nice little run. He does really well to get the ball firing into the corner.
“I thought the goalkeeper (could have done better), but I am not going to criticise goalkeepers with the big man (Joe Hart) standing beside me.”
Hart added: “It was a sharp finish. Look, we all know Martinez can save them. But that’s no criticism to him. It was really sharp from Jackson.”
Nicolas Jackson of Chelsea scores his team's first goal past Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC an...
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Martinez’s injury update
It could and should have been worse, from a defensive aspect, against Chelsea, especially when Martinez nearly gifted Jackson a goal.
Villa like to remain calm when playing out from the back and he practically passed the ball to the Chelsea striker, before diving in front and managing to get his hand to it.
In the process, Martinez managed to injure his hand and couldn’t carry on, with Robin Olsen coming on at half-time.
After the Villa defeat, Emery provided an injury update and shared that it’s an issue with his ‘hand’, as posted by John Townley on Twitter.
“I don’t know now exactly,” shared Emery post-match. “It is his hand. We have to check him.”
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