Aston Villa extend unbeaten run with drab 0-0 draw against Man Utd
BirminghamWorld reporter Charlie Haffenden's analysis following Aston Villa 0-0 Manchester United in the Premier League.
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00:00Aston Villa nil, Manchester United nil here at Villa Park in the Premier League.
00:05Unai Emery's men have extended their unbeaten run to eight matches in all
00:09competitions which is a real positive. To be honest that's pretty much the only
00:12positive from today because it's a real drab game. Flat performance from both
00:16teams and the atmosphere as well at Villa Park unusually quiet. It's been
00:20such a fortress at the start of this season and against Bayern Munich that
00:231-0 win, the really famous night under the lights in the Champions League was a
00:28lot kind of to match that. It was gonna be very difficult but for it to drop as
00:32much as it did both in noise and performance levels was a real shock.
00:36I thought that Villa would take it to United today. All the pressure was on
00:39Eriksen Haag. Was he able to get a win to save his job? Who knows what's gonna
00:45happen to the Dutchman today after two draws this week against Porto and now
00:48Villa but yeah Villa just never really got going. Morgan Rodgers not quite
00:53himself today maybe in need of the international break. Of course he'll be
00:56with England under-21s but he won't be playing at such a high level. He might
01:00need that. A little bit leggy. Leon Bailey the same could be said for him. Not quite
01:04able to create as many chances as usual. Luka Dean inconsistent with his
01:08crossing. Matty Cash on his return from injury promising defensively apart from
01:12one hiccup in the first half but couldn't really cross the ball once
01:15again. Just a lack of final product and there was a decent strike from Yuri
01:19Tieleman in the second half that was saved by Andre O'Nana and down the other
01:25end Marcus Rashford had a couple of chances saved by Emiliano Martinez. Bruno
01:30Fernandes saw a thunderous free kick off the crossbar. Rashford had a shot that
01:34went and flicked just over the bar as well so there were the odd chances in
01:38this game and most of them came in the second half and the first half was just
01:42really poor viewing from all angles really. I was trying to find something to
01:46to give my analysis a bit of a push but there wasn't much to talk about. It was
01:50just so reckless and breaking up the play in the middle of the park with so many fouls.
01:55I don't think the referee helped that. Handing out bookings every two seconds and
01:59just no real momentum or rhythm for either team to gain. After the break
02:04you're hoping maybe that things can change and there was a brief flurry of
02:07chances maybe in the first 15 minutes of the second half but then it filtered
02:11away again and and it ended nil-nil here. There was one good chance actually I
02:15should mention for Jadon Filagin right at the end. Ian Mattson the late
02:19substitute potentially came on too late in the 83rd minute, crossed it low, made
02:23it all the way across the area and then Filagin struck. Couldn't have done much
02:26else as he got it on target but Diogo Dalot with a heroic block to keep it
02:31nil-nil right at the end. Other than that I think the main talking points are
02:34gonna be on the injuries as Ezri Canza in only the 12th minute went off the
02:39villa. I couldn't tell if he was holding his hamstring or his quad or maybe his
02:43glutes. There was some sort of muscular issue that forced him off and he was
02:47replaced by Diego Carlos who actually played fairly well backing up his
02:50performance against Bayern and then down the other end Harry Maguire just before
02:54halftime felt some sort of pain in his calf I believe, had a ripped sock and he
02:58was forced off as well. So a lot of talk about the injuries, a very forgettable
03:01game it has to be said but the points are shared and it's another point for
03:05Aston Villa.