Doubles from Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes consigned Dean Smith’s Villa to a 4-0 Premier League trouncing away to Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City.
Dean Smith admits Aston Villa have a major problem defending set-pieces after Monday night’s 4-0 trouncing at the hands of Midland rivals Leicester City, while speaking to the club’s official Twitter feed.
Going into a daunting clash with the Champions League-chasing Foxes, Villa already had the joint-worst defensive record in the Premier League. And, with no other club conceding more goals from set-pieces (15), Leicester’s corner-kick king James Maddison would have been licking his lips in anticipation.
In the end, none of Leicester’s four goals on the night came from a dead-ball situation but, if Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu had been a little more accurate from a pair of superb Maddison crosses, Villa would have gone behind far earlier than they eventually did at the King Power Stadium.
“It’s disappointing. They’ve scored four goals in both games against us,” said a dejected Smith after a game which leaves Villa second from bottom.
“Defensively I thought we were well organised (in the early exchanges). But unfortunately we have had a bit of an Achilles heel defending set pieces and they had a few free headers. Pepe (Reina) made a good save from Jonny Evans and Soyuncu had a free header as well.
“That’s something we’ve been working on so it’s very disappointing.”
Not for the first time this season, an individual error cost Aston Villa dear. The visitors were just five minutes away from going into the interval level at 0-0 when Pepe Reina gifted the electrifying Harvey Barnes the most straight-forward of openers.
And, thanks to a Jamie Vardy double and another at the end for Barnes, Leicester pushed their bitter local rivals even deeper into the relegation mire.
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