Michael Owen has claimed that John McGinn gave Saul Niguez ‘a taste of what the Premier League is all about’ during Aston Villa’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday, as he told Premier League Productions (11/09/21 at 6:25 pm).
The former striker suggests that even though Saul is a ‘world-class’ player, he found life difficult at Stamford Bridge over the weekend.
Thomas Tuchel handed his deadline-day signing his debut against Villa, but Dean Smith’s side pressed high up the field and were very aggressive towards the Chelsea players.
It wasn’t a case of Villa targeting Saul and targeting the Spaniard only, but trying to win the ball back as high up the pitch as possible as Chelsea built up their play.
In the end, Saul was hooked off by Tuchel at half-time and Chelsea went on to win 3-0.
Owen thinks Villa midfielders were ‘dominating’ during the first period, as he shared his thoughts on McGinn forcing Saul into mistakes.
“The Aston Villa players dominating and they have,” said Owen. “That was right early on in the game. John McGinn gave him a taste of what the Premier League is all about.
“He is taking too many touches. We all know he is a world-class player. But you just don’t get that time on the ball in the Premier League.
“They nearly scored a goal from this (McGinn winning the ball from Saul early in the first half).”
Villa should have scored at least two goals in the first half, and then they didn’t help themselves when Tyrone Mings’ backpass put Mateo Kovacic through on goal and he doubled his side’s lead after the restart.
Even though the away team pushed and pushed for a goal, Chelsea were pretty comfortable at 2-0 and saw out the game with Romelu Lukaku putting the cherry on the cake late on.
The scoreline did flatter Chelsea, as McGinn was Villa’s best player, with the £2 million man’s (Telegraph) all-action style and aggressive nature coming out for all to see.
McGinn has probably been Villa’s best player during these first four games of the season, with Dean Smith’s men picking up four points.
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