Aston Villa 6 Fenerbahçe 0 Post-mortem
If Aston Villa’s evolving new team needed the tonic of belief after some stuttering home performances this season in the Premier League, beating Fenerbahçe 6-0 at Villa Park in the Champions League certainly gave them a concentrated dose. It was Villa’s biggest European win and Unai Emery’s biggest as Villa manager.
Aided by a constantly probing Ibrahim Mbaye, Villa’s main two attacking threats took centre stage: Johan Manzambi opened the scoring on his 21st birthday, then Nicolas Jackson displayed his clinical edge, helping himself to a brace of tidy finishes. Ross Barkley scored twice inside a five-minute spell, and Tammy Abraham made it six at the death.
On top of the six goals was a most welcome clean sheet, that Unai Emery had highlighted as a priority ahead of the game. After weeks of worry about how Villa defend at home, the My Old Man Said podcast show’s post-mortem of the game starts with Emery’s own half-time talk and his focus on Villa’s defensive shape despite being 3-0 up. The show asks why this team looked so much better in transition once the second half got going. It also looks at Fenerbahçe’s lively start, the saves from Zion Suzuki that kept them at arm’s length, and why they faded.
The rest of the show is about squad depth: Barkley, Abraham, Alysson, Aaron Wan-Bissaka at left-back, and Leon Goretzka’s Villa debut. It looks like Emery’s new incarnation of Villa actually has more depth than last season.
UTV.
Restock on discounted Adidas Originals stock and last season’s shirts – Use code MOMS10 for an extra 10 % off here
Listen to the Show on Spotify or any other podcast app
Listen to the Podcast on Apple and Spotify and Amazon Music
Become a MOMS Member
Support the MOMS website and podcast for less than a pint at Villa Park, and get you ad-free podcasts, bonus shows and the Match Club community access. Become a member →
Credits:
David Michael – @myoldmansaid
Chris Budd – @BUDD_music