Aston Villa secured just their second win of the season and a first at home after a 1-0 triumph over Crystal Palace last night.
It looked promising for Palace after Wilfried Zaha and Jason Puncheon combined well in the first minute of the game to see a shot hit the far post, however, that was as good a chance that the Eagles created and their winless run in the Premier League is extended to four games.
The only goal came in rather fortunate circumstances for Villa. Joleon Lescott was found from a Jordan Veretout corner and able to get what looked to be a fairly easy to deal with header on target, yet what can only be described as a howler from Wayne Hennessey saw him fumble the ball over the line.
Palace will desperately need to find something to fix their issues as they face a tough road trip to Manchester City at the Etihad, while Villa will want to build on their momentum with another home game against Leicester.
Palace lacking attacking quality
In a game against the bottom team whose only win came in the opening weekend, there should be no problem finding weaknesses in the defence and it looked early like this was going to be the case, yet things went downhill quickly for Alan Pardew’s men after a bright initial spark. The quality of the passing was an issue as at times Palace were unable to put two together and it is hard to build pressure on the opposition defence without control the ball for any extended period of time.
Another contributing factor to this was a fairly average performance from Bakary Sako, who was caught offside on multiple occasions from not being aware enough of his surroundings. But the thing that has really hurt Palace this season has been the injury to Yannick Bolasie, who coincidentally has been missing since this winless run started and should be back from his thigh problem by the end of January.
Coach Alan Pardew admitted that it was a poor performance by his side in the press conference, saying that his team lacked energy and going as far as to label it the poorest display of the Eagles’ season .
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Team changes work in Garde’s favour
The Aston Villa coach made some big changes, including moving normal first choice goalkeeper Brad Guzan and Micah Richards to the bench. Libor Kozak saw his first start in over two years, having last played in the Premier League on Boxing Day 2013. The replacement in goal, Mark Bunn, was solid in his dealing with the very few chances that Palace got away on goal and Kozak was one of the more threatening players that Villa had going forward.
Aston Villa have won their first Premier League match since August, ending a run of 20 matches without a victory. pic.twitter.com/IL2KifXxBr
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) January 12, 2016
There needed to be a turnaround for Villa after only managing to draw with League Two side Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup and to get a win against a team that so far this season had been fighting for a spot in the top five shows that all may not be lost. However, there is a great fight ahead of them if they want to remain in the top division.
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