Four Villa flops make Prem worst XI as McGinn messes up ‘most important game in their recent history’

Aston Villa have as many players in our worst XI as they conceded goals to Tottenham, with flops from Fulham and Nottingham Forest halting Unai Emery’s quest to make this team dominated by claret and blue.

The entire team and match ratings come courtesy of WhoScored…

GK: Emi Martinez (Aston Villa) – 5.31
Let’s save the worst for first, shall we?

Aston Villa endured their worst day (not v Newcastle) under Unai Emery at home to top-four rivals Tottenham, shipping four second-half goals to give Ange Postecoglou’s men the advantage in the race for Champions League football.

Villans No. 1 Martinez conceded four goals and made a grand total of one save. Just as well he did as that game could have gotten away from them.

Nobody in the Premier League had a worse match rating than the best goalkeeper in the world over the weekend and he is one of only four Villa players in this team, despite the fact they were the only team to lose by more than two goals.

Who is the best goalkeeper in the Premier League? Not Martinez.

RB: Timothy Castagne (Fulham) – 5.88
Fulham have done Aston Villa a favour by failing to show up at Wolves on Saturday, with Alex Iwobi’s late consolation goal making the 2-1 scoreline look somewhat respectable.

Castagne and his 75% pass accuracy helped contribute to a worse rating than Matty Cash, who was served some sweet revenge for his nasty challenge on Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur in the reverse fixture between Villa and Spurs.

CB: Andrew Omobamidele (Nottingham Forest) – 5.67
Whether it is unfortunate or not, an own goal will always put you in the danger zone, and that is exactly what happened to Nottingham Forest centre-back Omobamidele. A yellow card doesn’t help, either, and he got one of those too. Careless.

CB: Pau Torres (Aston Villa) – 5.60
Aston Villa started three centre-backs against Spurs and summer signing Torres was the worst of the lot, with Clement Lenglet achieving a 5.78 and Ezri Konsa a 5.80, making him Emery’s best-rated central defender despite having an error leading to a goal.

Torres did not misplace any of his 36 passes, nor did he fail to win any of his two aerial duels. He also made two tackles, while making two clearances and a single interception. Looking at the stats alone, the match rating feels harsh.

However, if you watched the game, you knew he had a tough time up against Heung-min Son and co.

LB: Vitaliy Mykolenko (Everton) – 5.70
Substituted in the 88th minute after a rough afternoon defending against Manchester United’s best player, Alejandro Garnacho, Mykolenko and Everton will be delighted to see the back of the overhead kick-scoring, penalty-winning youngster.

The Ukrainian left-back did not make a single tackle or win an aerial duel while misplacing ten passes.

CM: John McGinn (Aston Villa) – 5.89
In a match that Aston Villa captain McGinn described as “the most important game in the club’s recent history”, he got sent off after an all-time head loss saw him absolutely smash Destiny Udogie, who wanted to give the Scot a piece of his mind before realising he was actually in quite a bit of pain.

The red card was just a bit silly, wasn’t it? 100 per cent pass accuracy and three key passes down the drain. McGinn will now miss Villa’s next three Premier League games with Spurs breathing down their necks. McSilly.

CM: Nicolas Dominguez (Nottingham Forest) – 5.84
Zero dribbles completed and dribbled past twice, Dominguez had one of his worst games in a Forest shirt in Sunday’s narrow defeat to Brighton.

Just like Omobamidele, Dominguez was shown a yellow card, which the algorithms hate, by the way.

AM: Tom Cairney (Fulham) – 5.49
Rubbish substitutes would usually be given the benefit of the doubt but when someone comes off the bench and scores an own goal, there is no option but to give them hell.

Six minutes after entering the game, the experienced midfielder put the ball in his own net through no fault of his own. Nelson Semedo’s shot was going wide and the crucial deflection off of Cairney’s hiney gave Bernd Leno no chance to help Wolves win the Please Finish Above Chelsea Because It Would Be Funny Derby.

RW: Harry Wilson (Fulham) – 5.70
Fulham somehow only have one fewer player in this team than Aston Villa, who conceded all of the goals.

Hooked shortly after Cairney’s own goal, Welsh winger Wilson backed up his goal and assist performance against Brighton last week with an underwhelming one against Gary O’Neil’s men. He failed to complete a dribble and was dribbled past three times, doing nothing to help Marco Silva defensively.

LW: Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton) – 5.79
You can’t play against Dan Burn every week, pal…

Poor Ogbene had an afternoon to forget at Selhurst Park, winning two of his seven aerial duels against Crystal Palace before being substituted in the 87th minute. His replacement was ex-Eagles winger Andros Townsend, who provided the assist for Cauley Woodrow’s late equaliser.

ST: Leon Bailey (Aston Villa) – 5.84
WhoScored had Bailey as a striker before anyone cries about the winger being out of position.

It was a difficult afternoon for Bailey and Ollie Watkins up top for the Villans. Between them, they completed zero take-ons. At least Watkins attempted a couple, though. Supposed trickster Bailey didn’t even bother.

Offside a couple of times and dispossessed once, the Jamaican international and everyone associated with Aston Villa will want to put this result firmly behind them.

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