It is no secret that the Premier League believe they have the best product in modern-day football. At the same time, UEFA would argue that they do so with their European competitions, particularly the Champions League. The problem is, I am starting to wonder if the Premier League’s stubbornness is having a knock-on effect on their product.
We went into yesterday’s fixture with Manchester United having played Bayern Munich on Wednesday night and the visitors played Porto in Portugal on Thursday. I felt the time frame for both clubs was fair (Yes I know we had one extra day but we had to deal with the Thursday night games last year) but given the show put on for the supporters in attendance and no doubt the millions who watched from home, maybe it wasn’t.
Most European League give their clubs maximum time to prepare and recover from European football to give them the best opportunity on the big stage but does the Premier League make their clubs suffer through their stubbornness?
I could be completely wrong and the cagey performance from both sides could have been down to many reasons and this not be it. I know some would argue Villa beat Wolves four days after beating Young Boys away in the same competition but it does make you question would English clubs benefit if they were given more support from the Premier League.
Some went into the game believing Villa should be taking all three points on the day. I know bookies had the home side as favourites but I wasn’t so sure. United have a crazy record against Villa. You only have to look at last season when Villa were the better side over two games and still came away with no points.
The three games in seven days have affected Villa’s squad this week with Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey missing the game through injury. This was an injury list that already included John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara, Tyrone Mings, Matty Cash and Leon Bailey. Luckily for Villa, the latter two returned to the starting line-up for this game but match fitness was always going to play a part.
Eric Ten Hag is under a lot of pressure and opted to start Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans as Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs De Ligt dropped to the bench and in truth, it seemed to work against a Villa side that showed signs of tiredness and struggled to break down the visitors.
Morgan Rogers struggled to build on his performance against Munich but was the first to threaten the United goal. Your Tielemans also forced a save from Adrea Onana in the United goal.
But it was the visitors who came close when Bruno Fernandes clattered the woodwork from a free-kick.
There was an argument that Marcus Rashford should have been sent off for two yellow cards but for the third time in three games, the officials let the opposition off.
Both sides could have stolen all three points late on when Jaden Philogene had his effort cleared off the line by Diogo Dalot and Alejandro Garnacho missed an opportunity to play Fernandes through on goal.
It wraps up a tough but good week for Villa. No fan likes the international break but it may have come at the right time for Unai Emery as his side can rest up and hopefully get some of their injured players back in time for the game against Fulham after the break.
Emery: “It’s not the best result but it’s not the worst. With how we played in the first half and second half, I think the draw could be fair for both teams.
“At the end, we had two good chances to score. Maybe that was the key moment to beat them. But in the 90 minutes, we missed some energy.
“I’m happy because the draw was not the worst result. In the second half, we corrected some tactical things and we controlled things better.”
Ten Hag: “We had very good organisation and very good personality in the team. Resilient, determined. So it was a very good spirit as a team.
“We almost didn’t concede a chance. When you defend like this, you can have some luck, like in the end with the big chance at the back post.
“But that was almost the only chance they had. We had some control in possession. We created some chances, although not so many.
“It was really balanced. We hit the bar and a good chance for Rashy. But the two teams were really balanced.”
Aston Villa will travel to in-form Fulham after the International break while Manchester United will host Brentford at Old Trafford.
