POST MATCH REACTION: Luton Town 2-3 Aston Villa

John Townley is here today with a solo impromptu podcast as Dan is still without wi-fi after his house move! So, John’s had a go at breaking down the game at Kenilworth Road and offering his thoughts on Villa’s late win against Luton Town.

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Hello and welcome back to the CL blue podcast your eyes do not deceive you it’s only me for today’s postmatch show after Aston Villa’s 3-2 win over Luton Town on Saturday night we wanted to record a postmatch show yesterday obviously um if you follow Dan on Twitter then you’ll know that he has

Just moved house and Virgin Media have um screwed him over they haven’t installed their Wi-Fi his Wi-Fi sorry Yet meaning that we couldn’t bring you a postmatch show yesterday but I thought well after another Aston Villa win we have to talk about it for at least 20

Minutes so yeah here I am on my own so hopefully this doesn’t go uh too badly wrong Villa’s 17th win of the Season which is it’s just remarkable at this stage of the campaign Villa can theoretically just I mean they’re not going to just pick and choose victories

We want to win every game every three remaining uh match that we have this season hopefully our season won’t end until late May in Athens but in terms of the Premier League we have 11 games left now and you know if we win five we’re definitely going to be finishing the top

Five where it’s top four we’ll get on that later um but anyway permutations that can restle later but I’ve been looking at them um for quite some time so that’s the first thing that’s come into my head but we’ll start with I suppose the first half from

Yesterday I mean I think to be it’s probably worth saying from the top it doesn’t really matter how Villa are going to get their wins in the remaining what are we less than three months of the season now um it’s all about getting over the line whether you are going for

The title as we saw Liverpool winning late at Forest yesterday as well um whether you’re scrapping against relegation like luten are like Forest are Everton other teams as well or you go for Champions League like Villa and Tottenham man united you have to put in that conversation at the moment I they

Play obviously man city later and we will you know get on to that again later in my little mini show here but um yeah I don’t want to kind of jinx anything to do to do with them because we know we’ve been scarred by them previously um and

It could happen again you never know but Viller and are in a really good position right now three wins in a row um three wins three away wins sorry in a row as well for the first time in 13 months started really well against Luton they were totally dominant Villa in the first

Half at halim actually when I went to get my um my halftime pie I was speaking to some of the Luton toown media team and they were saying this is probably the best footballing team that we’ve come up against this season which you know Villa are fourth but I think for

Some of us fans especially me I think it’s still getting used to Villa are bloody good you know and hearing those things even from where we came from you know two years ago even a year ago Villa weren’t um nailed on to be getting

Europe at all you know we had to put in a certain amount of wins to um try and get near the top seven really we were around 10th for a long time and look where we are now we are again I’ll talk about the second half later on but let’s

Just focus on the big positives of the first half so far villawood they were in total control it was the perfect away performance in the first half um similar very similar in fact to the United game and as we’ll get on to it was similar to the defeated Old Trafford in some ways

Of course we won this time um but there was no moment again like the United game where I I felt threatened by Luen and that was full credit to Villa again people are speaking to it Hal time they did mention that you know going Toe to Toe to with City sorry um

That might have played a factor as well but I don’t know I just think Villa played very well everything emry warned against in the first half Villa um kind of mitigated I think there was probably one attempt on it wasn’t even on target one attempt from Luton which was Andrew

Toon’s header I think which went over the bar maybe there was something in additional time as well Ross Barker had a free kick as well obviously got blocked by the by The Villa wall but Villa weren’t under threat and they were full value for their two-nil lead they

Probably should have had more Ole Watkins of course um I’ll speak about him soon but just tremendous phenomenal player at Hal time as well mentioning to the reporters near me you know because we were joking about you know how does Harry Kane get in England him him for

The or it kind of made me think well actually he’s playing not playing like Kane in terms of Kane dropping deep and trying to link a player like that but his impact is like Harry Kane is like a top forward but then well he is a top forward now because he’s having this

Impact in games throughout the course of the Season he is one of the best strikers in Europe hands down 100% he’s the second best striker in the Premier League I’m not saying’s going to get to harland’s level but’s he’s even closed that Gap there’s still a gap of course

But he’s closing that Gap here because he is getting even better um just remarkable the impact he’s having because he’s scoring goals yes but he’s getting chances he doesn’t take every chance because if he did he’d be scoring four goals a game but he’s a constant

Nuisance and it must be a nightmare to play against he always he always was sorry a nightmare to play against in my opinion I mean I luckily I don’t have to play against him but my point being that he’s always um Haring defenses rushing them in possession uh he always on the

Shoulder as well never had the movement you know because he was never coached by emry before um to this level even but he always had the attributes to become this player and emry has just taken him on to a whole another level and it’s scary because again in the last few weeks I’ve

Seen evidence that he can actually get better still which is say it’s um very good news to Villa but yeah Watkins two goals uh takes his tal 16 now so four goals away from getting 20 in a league campaign for Villa just yeah Sensational he is the difference making now and he

Is inevitably going to break Villa’s alltime Premier League goal scoring record held by Gabby bonor um directly involved in 26 League goals as well this season which is the outright most of any player in the competition I saw a couple of Twitter videos and whatnot from um

Was it a Saturday social clip and yeah I don’t think Watkins featured in their top 10 or top 20 players of the season I shouldn’t have even brought that up because it doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about Villa what they’re doing this season what they could achieve all the

Players that we have but it’s just remarkable how we can still go under the radar like that or our players can still go under the radar like that we have one of the best strikes in World football we have one of the best midfielders in the Premier

League in Louise uh center backs in Torres coner Martinez who isn’t you know so much under the radar but won’t get the credit I don’t think he deserves I want to say not from Villa fans but even in the second half when he was relieving so much pressure I thought you know

There aren’t many goalkeepers who would catch the ball relieve this pressure off this V defense um as many times is what Martinez has in the game and again you know come the end of the season it’ll be Watkins it’ll be Bailey it’ll be these players who are up for um kind of all

The credit but we’ll sit back and think actually Martine has probably saved us between this amount of points um and this amount of points so yeah fantastic goalkeeper I could go from 1 to 11 um I could go from Back to Front in the team and pick out you know more key

Performers um but yeah just specifically in that first half Watkins of course excellent Douglas Lewis as well really good thinking quick thinking to put Watkins away for the second goal thought cash did well um he had the kind of un unenviable task of dealing with Dy OG

Ben and Chong all on that all on that left side they combined very well and they combined very well in other games as well um they combined very well on that left side I think OG moved over to the right to Alex Moro which causes problems um kind of spoke volume spoke

Volume sort of Cash’s good performance in the first half coner again you know excellent fit into the center back role he didn’t misplace a single pass yesterday which is again remarkable um in Midfield I thought johnigan did well in the first half so it was I remember I

Walked up the steps um to take a look at the pitch have a look around the stadium obviously never been to Kennel Worth Road um before and straight away I thought John mcin is gonna like this game because it was I don’t think it’s as tight a pitch as what people make it

Out to be if from being totally honest but it it was the con of the environment and I was like okay John M all relish this um and he did especially in the first half again I’ll move on to it soon but the second half lacked control and

That obviously had an impact across the team the yeah Villa were totally dominant in the first half it was an excellent performance as I say the people I speaking to Half Time said this is probably the best footballing team that we’ve come up against um they said

As well that no one has controlled Luton like this at Kennelworth Road at all this season and limited them to so many chances as I said they they barely had a Sniff and it was all vill it could have been more goals um but we go into halftime

And I didn’t expect Luton to come out and do what they did I thought they’d be you know um more aggressive and they’d be uh more dangerous I suppose because in the first half say Villa controled them and contain them so well um but I didn’t expect Villa to manage the game

So poorly as what they did and that is an issue because as I said we’ve seen this now against man united um we’ve seen Villa lack that control in in second half in the second half of games uh similar to United and Luton without considering as many goals as they did in

The those games um but it is something I’m worried about to an extent however what I would say is that I mentioned earlier teams are now scrapping for points teams like Forest who again we didn’t manage the game particularly well against uh the previous weekend teams like

Luton at this point in the season as Villa know from previous campaigns teams start picking up points where you did not expect them to and I believe Tottenham play forest and Luton I think they’re both at home which obviously helps them um but there will be games now towards the end of the

Season where those teams pick up points where you don’t expect them to so I think it’s huge for Villa that they’ve um kind of avoided that kind of banana skin United were lucky to as well um at kwth Road last month you know to the point where in the

First half they got two dodgy goals um which gave them really good you know kind of Head Start as such L then came back in the game pretty straight away and United did have chances after that but they didn’t control the game as well as how as what Villa did at least for

The first you know 50 to 55 60 Minutes of the game that sort of thing the point I’m trying to make here is that towards the back end of the season I don’t think Villa are playing many teams who are scrapping at the moment you shefford

United and Burnley for me are are good as gone if not gone um by the next few weeks I don’t know where they are in the table for me you know Burley Chef United as good as gone V obvious play them twice doesn’t really matter I think

Tottenham played them last two games of the Season Burnley and Sheffield United so that’s probably six points for Tottenham there but vill played Everton homeing away they’ve played Luton homeing away now they’ve played um not Forest homeing away and I I don’t think there’ll be too many other teams in the

Relegation scrap being totally honest I think you’ve got brenford you’ve got Palace um but I expect those teams to be okay I think they’ll pick up enough points but yet l Everton and Forest especially they will be scrapping now and they’ll be you know fighting tooth and nail and you know

Villa were to have drawn yesterday it would have been gutting because we were two n up and we didn’t manage the game well but as I said you can’t take any game for granted now towards the end of the season so that’s why it’s so important just to get over the line um

But that doesn’t take away that Villa was still um poor in the second half they didn’t manage the game well as I say l are especially good at pieces I don’t know exactly what the statistic is but it’s something remarkable like half of the goals have come from uh set

Pieces not directly but from Second bows uh set set piece routines from um you know Corners free kicks even throwin that sort of thing and it’s second balls because they usually win the first one as well um so basically routines they know what they’re doing and uh fair play

To Rob Edwards this is a team who are you know lited with championship players with all due respect that you know that is their um level but as a collective they are showing that they can be a Premier League team and they will compete and as I mentioned earlier emry

Warned against them you know staying in games throughout throughout the period of 90 minutes and that’s what they did against uh Newcastle United Newcastle United Newcastle and United other teams as well um they were a match for Liverpool up until what 60 minutes or so City they got thumped in

The cup but they were still on the front foot trying to score goals so Villa they had to control the game in the first half and then you know mitigate everything that they were doing in the first half in the second half as well it was never going to be an easy second

Period And as we found out uh it wasn’t to be you know a smooth Rod at all um Villa were giving away too many free kicks too many corners they were conceeding too much territory in their own in their own half as well so I think while

Villas you know you could criticize them from a defensive point of view from those set pieces Etc but actually just think the game management was to blame in this situation because even if you know Lon had half the free kicks they had or half the corners they probably

Don’t score twice or even once to be honest because yeah if you’re going to keep giving them those opportunities they will score um so that for me was the uh the kind of reason why Villa was so poor because so they lost all control pretty much um speak into Ian Taylor

After the game he mentioned that you know yes you can blame um you know V defensively but at the same time there aren’t many players there who can compete with these loen players in the Box because I me I totally agree coner can win his headers Watkins can as well

He’s got a very good jump on him but you know you’re looking at those two and maybe long lay but there’s not a lot else who are going to you know stand up um and battle in the air and who are above six foot ultimately so these Len

Players knew that they would have an advantage if they could you know H some balls in the box and again this isn’t to kind of discredit what L were doing in the game because it sounds quite negative kind of just talking about the set pieces but this is how they play the

Football and they’ve changed over the last few weeks because what they do now instead of kind of respecting the opposition a bit more and playing a bit more defensive they are more on the front foot which gave Villa a kind of leg up I suppose in the first half

Because they were pushing on to pushing on to them and they’d be playing these direct balls and basically trying to win knockdowns and second balls and uh kind of applying pressure in the final third that was the game but that’s why I also thought Villa would come here and win

Because um it was a case of well if they can get out of that press when they’re when L to trying to suffocate the likes of Douglas louiz Etc they can play one two three and then bang you know Watkins isn’t on goal and that happened a few

Times again it should have been more in the first half but in the second half that changed because Villa were were poor and I felt like they’re probably playing for the counter attack as well there was that one chance that Watkins had when he was played um in on goal I

Think he C inside but there was a time effort if that goes in game’s done then and Villa would be praised for kind of soaking up pressure and then hitting them on the counter and that was the game plan I think of course we wanted more control than what we did but I

Think we were happy to you know kind of get through it and that wasn’t you know to be the case because L have got some experts from set pieces and was going to cause those problems and we invited too much pressure I think is the key Point

Here um but of course it wouldn’t be a repeat of the United collapse weirdly I don’t know how to quite put this but I didn’t want Villa to concede The Equalizer of course I didn’t but a part of me thought you know what if Villa do concede an equalizer they’ve got a

Better chance of winning the game even though they were winning at the time if that makes sense because I can’t quite remember what minute uh KL Morris scored 72nd minute something like that but Villa had a good 15 20 minutes to find a winner at that point and of course the

Game would then be more open it would be you in Villa’s favor to them find a winner because at this point when uh Luton were um or had sorry when Luton had half the deficit and it was 2-1 Villa couldn’t get out and they were struggling they were on the back foot

And it was basically inevitable that they were going to concede that equalizer and when it came I just thought well okay let’s see what you’ve got and believe John mcin had a effort cleared off the line I think when it was to old Old Trafford which would have

Made it 3-2 to Villa I think it came at that point or was to make it 3-1 I can’t quite remember but um yeah the point being Villa were then allowed to kind of push on Lon again because L thought okay well we’ve got a

Draw we’re not going to go as gunko as what we were and I think that helped vill and obviously they got the goal I thought to be fair Villa would then control and make more chances before Lucine scored in the end it turned out to basically be one opportunity and they

Took it it was was obviously two of Emory Subs as well diabi and Luca deine combining and that’s now 11 points that Villa have won from the 80 from from goals from the 85th minute onwards in in uh league matches this season 11 points that’s the difference between being

Where United are and where Villa are now and maybe that that says a lot about the different mentalities of the two teams I don’t know maybe there’s an argument to be made there um the top teams always find a way and that’s exact what Villa did yesterday to put another

Huge um three points on the board so um yeah fantastic Victory and one that has opened the V Gap I suppose to United to another uh three points so 11 points at the moment again at the time of recording this United haven’t kicked off against City yet most people you know

I’m sure we’ll expect City to beat United I don’t think it’ll be convincing score line I hope it is um but I’m never going to rule United out in this race for top four top five I’m just not because I I can’t can’t tempt the uh the footballing gods because we know what

Happens next um but Villa are now getting to the situation where it is I know this might sound a bit kind of overdue but it’s in their hands now to the point where they can win you know five of the next 11 and basically confirm at least fifth of course if they

Beat Tottenham next week then that will be you know a huge shot in their arm to you know getting fourth but I think there’s a long way to go in the race for fourth even if Villa were to win I’ve said before Villa um as we know sorry

Villa go to City they go to Arsenal they host Liverpool they go to Brighton they play walls they go to West Ham I I do think Villa running is very difficult um not to say that tottenham’s isn’t challenging as well and I think they they will drop points too as I say

Home to L and home to Forest those aren’t Bankers they play Liverpool they play Arsenal they play City they play um another top team as well can’t quite remember who the other team is thinking off the top of my head now um Villa of course as well um they got a Chelsea too

Which you know has never been easy for them so the Runnings are difficult for all three teams um but as I say Villa and now the situation where if they win five their last 11 so they’re five home games before they play uh Liverpool at home so that would

Be Tottenham Chelsea wolves Bournemouth and brenford if they can win those five games they’ll be on 70 points that’s obviously taking away all of the away games which I don’t think Villa will lose all of them uh in fact I know they won’t so yeah that would give Villa

Basically a huge opportunity to finish fourth and it basically rules United out of getting top five because then United would then have to win nine of their last 11 if they lose to City for them to get 71 points because at the moment as I say it’s 11 points but it’s basically 12

Because Villa’s far superior goal difference on uh Man United and fifth place you know is looking likely still to get Champions League at the moment that is obviously dependent on what English clubs do in their um respective European competitions but you know barring a kind of a catastrophic um knockout phase for uh

City Arsenal liver West Ham Brighton and Villa um then you’d like to think that fifth place would get you know an extra ticket for the Champions League ahead of the Bundesliga for example who only have a few teams left in the competition and the likes of fryberg even B Munich to be

Honest they shouldn’t be going far in a champions league and fber in the Europa League so yeah a long way to go still but Villa R now at the point in which to say they can again they’re not going to pick and choose where they get their

Wins but we now now know what we need to do to achieve it it’s in our hands we know that five wins is going to basically secure it um pretty much and you know a couple of draws here and there fantastic job done Champions League football comes back to vill the

Only I suppose block on the um on the win was Jacob Ramsey coming off a foot injury again he’ll get that scan today they’ll know the results um you know by this afternoon whatever it may be whether it’s related to his previous injury I’m not totally sure but

Obviously it’s far from ideal and um he wanted to continue he had to come off you know kind of he didn’t limp off off the pitch in terms of around the perimeter um but you know it’s uh it’s a sad situation because he’s been excellent I

Think in the last few weeks and he he’s got back up to Fitness he’s regained his confidence after quite a few games I think you know I didn’t expect him to come back you know with the bang straight away um but it took him a

Little bit of time to uh kind of get back in the running of things I think it was like the middleb game that he looked a bit more like himself but then wasn’t until really Fulham I suppose that um or man united even that he started to look

Like the Jacob bramsey that we had seen last season so that’s a real shame for him I don’t know where that leaves him in terms of you know can he play a part of the next month season I I don’t know it’s all speculation at the moment but

It’s not good that is picking up these you know similar injuries of I presume similar um yeah not a good situation but it opens the door for you know the next man St to step up and that was Morgan Rogers who actually I thought was excellent in the first half I really did

Um he played 60 minutes or so came close to scoring you know what would have been a fantastic goal you know potentially a maybe not a goal of the Season Contender when John Duran exists but um you know that was going top Corner before Thomas Kaminsky tipped the ball over the bar

Really good save and to be fair the lon keeper is a very good goalkeeper expect him to be in the Premier League or in one of the top divisions if Luton are relegated this season performed really well and kept the score line down for sure in the um first half but yeah

Rogers was really good for me um especially in the first period again the second half was difficult to judge him because Villa managed the game poorly and I don’t think you know him playing as a left Winger there’s not a whole lot he can do I mean yes maybe he could have

Committed less fouls um but you know he’s learning and um yeah completed 100% of his dribbles um made two chances in the game and that beautiful flicky as well in the second half that nearly uh created an opportunity to did create an opportunity sorry I think I think that

Was for Watkins um again but yeah I you know he impressed me he came off for tactical reasons emry said after fulltime which is you know obvious I think he played well um but at that point in the game Villa needed more control they needed kind of more wouldn’t say the Sol

Experience but emry clearly saw something that he needed to tweak in that moment which is fine and he said as well you know someone asked him how did Roger take being subed then um and EM said like very good like no issue it’s you know this is It’s a this is a team

Game this 11 players on the pitch and what nine substitutes so um yeah there’s different ways to win games and doesn’t mean you can’t sub players who have already been subed Leon Bailey came off against Liverpool after coming on for Diego Carlos um I think Villa fell be to

Saos early on didn’t they and then Carlos came off in like the 11th minute or something uh Bailey came on then came off later in the match and that was arguably the start of Leon Bailey’s Renaissance Ron Villa so it’s never a bad thing um if I am region manager when

You come off because it’s not personal it’s uh it’s a tactical decision and it’s work before with Bailey so yeah this the no issue there Rogers is not the type of player to be uh you know particularly down about that decision or whatever it may be he’ll pick himself up

And it’ll be fun so yeah that was the only kind of blot on the night Ramsey coming off but ultimately three points in the bag again as a say vill can now kind of look towards again dangerous game this is not what they’ll be doing but you can now

Target specific matches and think well if they win there there there there there and there that’s 70 points and you know I say couple draws here and there Villa don’t lose many games this season or haven’t lost many games this season sorry and have’ only lost to a handful

Of teams of course they lost twice to United and Newcastle which is so frustrating um but it is what it is it can happen in a campaign and yeah you know going towards the last 11 games of the season now in fact I’ve got some stats here about what Villa have done

Basically in their um 16 11 game Cycles this campaign so they’ve picked up a maximum of 26 points in in 11 games so that’s from uh you know game one of the season to game 11 or game two to Game 12 you know that thing that cycle um the

Lowest was 18 points from 11 games which if they get 18 points then they’re going to get Champions League or League’s top five um their average over 11 games is 22 points so nearly 23 points actually so they’re well capable of getting 11 points from the last 11 games of the

Season um and that would Crown what would what has been at least so far you know this a remarkable campaign just hope that in the conference League we can continue to match that we go to aax on Thursday myself and Dan will be back on Monday for a Q&A maybe a couple of

Other videos as well Dan has asked me to ask you to leave your uh comments your thoughts anything you like in the comment section for us to answer on tomorrow’s episode again apologies for the kind of impromptu podcast um yeah there’s not a whole lot we could have

Done and also the pre-match show as well we couldn’t do because of Dan’s wife and because because I was Ill actually I was in bed on uh Friday night I didn’t think I’d be able to get to the game on Saturday but I was all good in the

Morning so we’ll be back on Monday and then it’ll be a normal week following then hopefully if Dan gets his Wi-Fi sword so thanks everyone for watching uh today’s video please leave a like rating And subscribe if you’re not already and we’ll catch you soon up the Villa