The great Aston Villa goal drought continues. Five months ago, they were scoring three and threatening to get more against a Paris Saint-Germain side en route to winning the Champions League. Now Villa are the only club in England’s top seven tiers without a goal. For the first time in their history, they have failed to score in their opening four league games. A second stalemate of the season illustrated how a team who could look irresistible have lost their potency. “We will score again,” vowed Unai Emery. It was the sort of statement he didn’t need to make a few months ago.
Their saviour at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium was the man who, if he had his way, would have been preparing for a Manchester derby instead. Villa owed their second point of the season to Emi Martinez. After a deadline day spent waiting for a move for Manchester United that never happened, after Emery gave a bizarre interview before the defeat to Crystal Palace that consisted of repeating the name of his other goalkeeper, Marco Bizot, Martinez was restored and reintegrated with at least some relationships rebuilt.
