With the title race and relegation scrap long since decided, the dash for the European places needs to deliver drama down the stretch of this Premier League season. Aston Villa did exactly that, smashing the top-five race wide open with a win over Newcastle United that moved them level with Nottingham Forest in the final golden ticket spot.
This 4-1 win was nigh on as impressive a performance as Tuesday night’s near miss vs. PSG, another of Europe’s most in-form sides finding that Villa Park is a tough place to go when Unai Emery can throw so many talented attacking players at you. From the 33rd second, Newcastle were on the back foot, Ollie Watkins’ strike deflecting in off Fabian Schar. The Swiss center back, perhaps lucky to avoid a red for hauling down Villa’s striker when chasing a ball over the top, made amends with a back-post header that ensured the Magpies were level going into the break.
They rarely looked like maintaining parity. When Eddie Howe returns from his battles with pneumonia, high on his list of priorities ought to be addressing why Newcastle, who had won their last three matches by an aggregate score of 12-1, seem to run out of steam at the back end of demanding game weeks. An unchanged XI across five games in April goes some way to explaining it.
Meanwhile, Villa, free from any notable injuries, had an overwhelming depth of talent to hurl at Newcastle. Watkins played like a man infuriated to have had his starting spot snatched by Marcus Rashford, ending this game with a goal, a crossbar shaken from two strikes that thundered against it and the assist for an overlapping Ian Maatsen to make it 2-1 with just over an hour played.
In the ascendancy, Emery turned to the fresh legs on the bench. His calls were immediately vindicated. Jacob Ramsey darted down the left, a low cross flicked on by Youri Tielemans and turned in by Dan Burn. His fellow substitute Amadou Onana rounded out the scoring in emphatic fashion, driving into the top corner from 20 yards out.
Now Villa look to be the runner that has timed their burst to perfection. Five straight wins have them in sixth for now, beating first Nottingham Forest and now Newcastle is drawing the frontrunners back towards the rest of the pack. Chelsea, in particular, ought to have a bottle of wine in the post for Emery.
Meanwhile, Manchester City would be entitled to look on their Tuesday under the Villa Park lights with trepidation. Still, they are finding a way to pick up the points they needed. Given the nature of their test on Saturday afternoon, one of the final sides to play away to a resurgent Everton at Goodison Park, the three they earned at the death were not to be sniffed at.
Usually, when City start building late-season momentum, it is as they power towards bigger prizes than Champions League qualification. Pep Guardiola, however, insists that it would be a “big, big success” for his injury-ravaged side to get across the line.
“Today was really, really important,” said Guardiola. “Of course, the motivation is different when you’re fighting for the title but we accepted that many, many months. I tried to convince the players that qualification for the Champions League in this country is a huge achievement. Don’t feel sorry for ourselves because we made a not good season. We still have something that is really good for the future, to improve and be in the positions we want to be.
“If we think that qualification for the Champions League is not enough, we would be arrogant. We would be presumptuous. We would be something we don’t have to be. Every season in this country since I arrived nine years ago, I thought qualification for the Champions League is a big, big success.”
Whether they will achieve that is still an open question. After the thrills of a come-from-behind win over Crystal Palace last week, Pep Guardiola stuck with the Kevin De Bruyne-led system that had delivered for him. The fear lay in relying on a 33-year-old whose fading fitness had called for a parting of the ways at the end of the season. That much was apparent on Merseyside as for 80 minutes City struggled to prise apart the Everton backline, eight shots for 0.6 expected goals.
Nico O’Reilly snuck in late on to capitalize on an error from Jordan Pickford before Mateo Kovacic added a second. The performance might not have been effective, but now is not the time to worry too much about that when the points are coming.
All the more so given that they are not for those around them. Following the boos that drowned out qualification for a Conference League semifinal on Thursday, Enzo Maresca needs his Chelsea side to rally at Fulham. Their advantage chipped away to goal difference, they will hope that a trip to Tottenham, the sort of opponent that are vulnerable to fast breaks, offers them a chance to break a two-game losing run.
With just over a month of the season left, this has the look of a race that will go down to the final bend. Villa’s dart through the chasing pack is going to ask an awful lot of the other contenders.
Add Comment