In an afternoon when the Villa strikers left their shooting boots at home and the defence went AWOL, Leicester scored four as they come back from behind twice at Villa Park to end Villa’s four-game unbeaten run.
The new Unai Emery era will have plenty of ups and downs as he continues to try and build on his process and build a team that is consistently competing at the right end of the table.
Emery is very demanding and this week it was highlighted when he stated that he wanted more complete performances from his side. Villa wasn’t bad on the day and you could argue that they were actually the better side but if you gift goals in the Premier League, you will be punished.
Aston Villa 2-4 Leicester
Villa started bright and took an early lead. Leon Bailey laid the ball off to Emi Buendia who struck the ball from outside the box but his effort clattered off the underside of the bar. The ball fell loose for Olie Watkins to beat Thomas Castagne to the ball to make it 1-0.
Despite being on top, the visitors took advantage of an error from Kamara. Emi Martinez passed a risky ball to the French midfielder who turned into three Leicester players. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was able to get a foot in as the ball dropped to Kelechi Iheanacho who passed the ball to James Maddison for an easy finish.
Villa looked shellshocked and took them a little while to find their groove again and when they did, they restored their goal advantage
Watkins should have scored a few moments before when arriving at the back post unmarked but he was unable to adjust his feet to get on the end of a Buendia cross.
The striker had a bit of luck with the goal though. Lucas Digne found the striker who turned and tried to play a low cross but the ball hit the boot of Harry Souttar and flew over the head of Danny Ward in the Leicester goal.
Just like before, Villa couldn’t protect their lead and the visitors were soon level again. Tyrone Mings blocked a cross from Victor Kristiansen, the ball fell to Harvey Barnes who found the head of an unmarked Iheanacho, who couldn’t miss.
Things then went bad to worse just before half-time. Iheanacho picked up the ball in space and picked out the run of Pepe, who rounded Martinez before slotting into an empty net.
Phillipe Coutinho and Alex Moreno were introduced at half-time as Lucas Digne and Jacob Ramsey were substituted.
Leicester almost made it four, when Ineanacho broke clean, and threw on goal but his effort went just wide of the goal.
Villa was the much better side in the second half but looked vulnerable from a counter-attack. Ward came to Leicester’s rescue when he pushed Buendia’s effort wide of the goal.
Bailey was the next in line to miss when he couldn’t make decent contact on Buendia’s cross as his effort was blocked by Wes Faes. Watkins then watched on as Souttar blocked his effort and Coutinho’s couldn’t find the target when he tried a volleyed effort from the corner.
The Brazilian thought he levelled moments later but the effort was ruled out because Douglas Luiz was offside.
With 11 minutes left on the clock, another error lead to another Leicester goal. Moreno failed to deal with Barnes’ ball over the top and Dennis Praet was able to round Martinez to make it 2-4.
The Process
I don’t think anyone expected Emery to have the impact he has had so quickly. It is a process and there will be ups and downs until he is able to build his own team. Fans need to quickly get on board and get behind what the manager is trying to do at Villa Park.
This booing or moaning about playing out from the back will do us and the players no favours. This style of play is here to stay. The players will make mistakes. Let’s stick with them and enjoy this ride.