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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barry Glendenning

Aston Villa finally win but remain a shadow of their former selves

Ollie Watkins prepares to fluff a penalty kick against Bologna
Not the look of a confident man: Villa’s Ollie Watkins prepares to fluff a penalty kick against Bologna. Photograph: Manjit Narotra/ProSports/Shutterstock

ASTON SMARTING

Seven games into the season and Aston Villa finally have a win on the board. And while it may have come in Bigger Vase, a competition they probably resent having to play in after being robbed of a lucrative Bigger Cup place by some overzealous refereeing in their final match of last season, it at least gives Unai Emery a platform on which to build, even if his players have yet to produce a performance even remotely fit to lace the steel-toed boots of all those geriatric rockers who joined Ozzy Osbourne at Villa Park for his summer farewell. Despite last night’s win, Emery’s side continue to look a pale facsimile of the one that pushed the tournament’s eventual winners, PSG, all the way over two legs in their Bigger Cup quarter-final last season. Something is definitely not quite right at Villa Park, a state of affairs perhaps best illustrated by the fact the assist for their winner came in the form of a comedy air-shot by the desperately out-of-sorts Morgan Rogers.

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