Ollie Watkins blasted his teammates after they threw away a two-goal lead against Brentford at Villa Park. “I’m not belittling my team, I’m part of it. We need to somehow figure out when we’re 2-0 up how to shut up shop, It’s frustrating. We lacked that big-team mentality where they kill games off, which is really disappointing. Maybe we just don’t have that maturity yet or game intelligence.”
This isn’t the first time that we have thrown away two-goal advantages and it’s now an advantage to Tottenham Hotspur in the race for the top four.
Unai Emery opted to give many of his big stars a rest in the 1-4 defeat to Manchester City in mid-week so he will be very disappointed that his players let him and the fans down.
Report: Aston Villa 3-3 Brentford
Villa made six changes to the startling line up including returns for Watkins and Emiliano Martínez. The surprise news came from the visitors as Ivan Toney was left on the bench due to a muscle injury.
Brentford got off to a bright start and had an early shout for a penalty when Leon Bailey challenged Sergio Reguilón but the referee stated that the Jamaican got the ball first.
Villa then dominated the ball but the visitors looked more dangerous on the break until Villa took the lead just after the half-hour mark. Watkins was able to get on the end of a John McGinn cross with a headed goal against his former club.
Emery’s side doubled their lead just after the break when Morgan Rodgers scored on the turn with his left foot as Villa looked to have put the game to bed.
Or so we thought. Then came a crazy nine minutes which included some woeful defending from the home side.
The first goal for the visitors came from Mathias Jørgensen when he originally missed the ball before scoring with his second attempt.
Two minutes later, Brentford were level. Reguilón crossed the ball from the left for an easy tap-in for Bryan Mbeumo. Poor defending from Pau Torres helped the forward as the ball should have been cleared.
Seven minutes later, the turnaround was complete to the shock of the Villa faithful. Reguilón was once again involved, this time picking out Yoane Wissa as the game was turned on its head.
There was one final last twist though when Watkins scored his second of the afternoon. The striker rose higher than the Brentford defenders to head home from a Bailey cross.
Villa had a late chance to win it through Ezri Konsa but he couldn’t not find the required connection to aim the ball towards goal.
What the managers said
Emery: “It’s a lot of things. We played fantastic for a half, fantastic. Like we were doing before at home when we were feeling strong. The first half was good and then in the second we also got the second goal. We were in control of the game.
“Then for 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, we lost control completely. It’s not normal. We lost our control, maybe due to the emotions. They scored three goals in 15 minutes, so of course we have to try and keep balance.”
Frank: “Incredible mentality from the players to come back. I thought first half was very even, we gave nothing away apart from the goal, which irritates me that we didn’t stop the cross and do better from the cross.
“I was a little bit angry at half-time because I felt we could’ve done a little bit more on the ball. Then conceding the second, it was just not good enough.”
Up Next
Aston Villa will host French side Lille at Villa Park on Thursday in the Quater Final of the Conference League.
Brenford are back in action next Saturday when they host Sheffield United at home.