The Truth About Villa’s Toothless Display Against Sunderland That Emery Won’t Want to Hear

Villa are in big trouble. Let’s not delude ourselves — we won’t go down, but this is shaping up to be a long, gruelling season if things don’t change quickly.

The first half was dire. Villa weren’t in it at all. Sunderland looked sharper, hungrier, and far more confident, while we looked flat. Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins might as well not have been on the pitch — both completely anonymous. 

Even though Sunderland went down to ten men in the first half, it didn’t get much better after the break either. You’d expect Villa to step it up, take control, and push for a big win. Instead, Sunderland still looked like the side who wanted it more. The most worrying thing for me is not just the lack of quality, but the lack of desire.

I believe that Unai Emery has a big call to make. For me, Morgan Rogers needs to come out of the starting XI. He’s underperforming and he appears to be lacking in confidence. Better to use him from the bench, build him up gradually, rather than throwing him into games he’s not influencing.

On the positive side, Jadon Sancho looked lively when he came on. He actually tried to make things happen, showing some creativity we’d been crying out for all game. If he can get a run of games under his belt, he might just give us a spark we’re badly lacking.

And we still had the chance to steal it late on — Ollie Watkins with a header he really should have buried. Truth be told, it would’ve been daylight robbery if it had gone in, we didn’t deserve the win, but I’d still have taken it without hesitation.

The reality is simple, if we continue to play like this all season, it’s going to be very painful. Emery and the squad have a lot of work to do — and quickly. UTV

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