Well, Aston Villa’s fairytale start to the Premier League season is well and truly over.
Dean Smith’s side went into this afternoon’s visit of Southampton on the back of a 3-0 drubbing by Leeds United at Villa Park last time out.
And the Villans – who beat Premier League champions Liverpool 7-2 last month – continue to look suspect in defence as the Saints scored no fewer than four goals against Emiliano Martinez today.
Jannik Vestergaard opened the scoring with a thumping header on 20 minutes.
And although the Aston Villa boss didn’t mention him by name, Smith might have asked questions of John McGinn.
It was the Scotland international who was supposed to be marking the big centre-back.
And Smith claimed at full-time that his side didn’t defend that goal well enough, saying to Sky Sports: “We were 3-0 down at half-time, we weren’t at our best but it was a bitty half with lots of stoppages. The first goal is never a foul, we have to defend it better and we made poor decisions.”
Was it McGinn’s fault? Well that’s a harsh word to use.
Yes, the former Hibernian midfielder was marking Vestergaard, but why did the Aston Villa boss allow that in the first place?
Vestergaard is a massive 6 foot 6 and McGinn stands at only 5 foot 10. The Scot should never have found himself in that position, so Smith can’t really blame anybody but himself on that front.
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