Aston Villa might have experienced a rocky start to the new season, but they have now collected three wins on the spin in all competitions, after overcoming a stern Feyenoord challenge to secure a 2-0 victory in the Champions League on Thursday night.
The travelling Villans very much didn’t have it their own way against Robin van Persie’s hosts, though, with Feyenoord coming away from the contest with 18 shots registered on the away side’s net.
Somehow, that clean sheet would still be intact come the full-time whistle in the Netherlands, with Unai Emery extremely thankful for the efforts of Marco Bizot in between the sticks and various other top performers that steered the West Midlands outfit to all three points.
Villa's star performers vs Feyenoord
It’s only logical to start with Bizot’s superhuman display in goal for Villa, with Emery and Co. almost certain to slip to a defeat if it wasn’t for the 34-year-old’s heroics.
Staggeringly, Bizot would make eight vital saves in total, with the number 40 having to be dragged into the lineup at the last minute to fill in for injury-stricken Emiliano Martinez, proving to be an accidental masterstroke.
Away from the Dutchman strengthening his claims to be Villa’s number one goalkeeper moving forward, Emiliano Buendia also showed why he’s been handed extended minutes in the first team recently by Emery at the Stadion Feijenoord.
The South American winger would end up breaking the deadlock to take the pressure off the stopper’s shoulders, with this fantastic curled effort gifting Villa a platform to then pick up a second consecutive Champions League victory.
Before being replaced by Donyell Malen shortly after this excellent strike beat Timon Wellenreuther, Buendia also won six ground duels as a lively presence down the left flank.
Even Morgan Rogers showed off flashes of his sublime trickery with five successful dribbles tallied up, away from John McGinn sealing all three points late on.
Yet, there was one notable underperformer in attack who struggled once more for Villa, who is now in grave danger of being axed from Emery’s first team picture.
The 6/10 Aston Villa star who must now be axed
It had been well documented at the start of the season that Villa held clear frustrations in front of goal.
Indeed, back in the bread and butter of league action, Emery’s men are still only sat on an unsatisfactory four goals, with Ollie Watkins unfortunately firing more blanks in the Netherlands.
Thankfully, Buendia and McGinn would come to the rescue, with Watkins definitely deserving of some leeway, too, considering his past goal-scoring exploits in claret and blue has seen him bag a frightening tally of 88 goals.
On the contrary, the patient approach is already beginning to wear thin with new recruit Evann Guessand, who struggled to get going for his new employers, yet again.
Minutes played
90
Goals scored
0
Assists
0
Shots
1
Big chances missed
1
Touches
36
Accurate passes
19/25 (76%)
Possession lost
11x
Total duels won
4/8
It wasn’t through a complete lack of trying, however, with Guessand even hitting the post with one second-half effort as Villa hunted down a win.
But, he just seemingly lacks the quality you’d expect from a £30m purchase, with a passive first half performance resulting in the Frenchman amassing fewer touches across the full 90 minutes than Bizot in goal. Guessand would bow out from the 2-0 victory with 36 touches, with Bizot amazingly sitting at 57 come the full-time whistle.
The ex-OGC Nice attacker also gave away possession 11 times, with the 24-year-old standing as a visible weak component of a Villa attack that shone via the star quality of Buendia and others.
Birmingham Live journalist John Townley would go on to dish out a 6/10 post-match rating to Guessand at the close of the contest, with the likes of Bizot and Buendia going on to receive justified praise by Townley, while the Frenchman was noted as failing to impact the game in the final third.
Emery will be majorly reconsidering whether the sub-par number 29 continues down the right wing as Premier League action returns to the calendar, with a worry that Guessand will just be seen as an expensive dud if these poor showings keep piling up.