Aston Villa 0-1 Stoke CityMarko Arnautovic 55
The evidence is mounting against Aston Villa. It is becoming harder for them to escape the reality of their situation and the sense of drift and decay that follows Villa around these days was exacerbated by this forgettable defeat to Stoke City, who moved away from the bottom three thanks to Marko Arnautovic’s winner.
Villa fought until the end. But they are in trouble.
Villa’s increasingly disgruntled supporters were not fooled. There were boos when Villa wasted a corner deep into stoppage time, losing the ball when they decided to take it short instead of sending it into the box, and Villa Park was verging on mutiny after the final whistle.
Tim Sherwood’s side have picked up only one point since winning at Bournemouth on the opening day and their fourth successive defeat leaves them in the relegation zone, four points below West Bromwich Albion in 17th place.
Sherwood looks like a manager who is frantically searching for inspiration and fresh ideas, the magic formula that will make all of Villa’s various structural problems disappear, and his questionable use of an awkward 5-3-2 system only lasted until half-time.
It was a challenge to detect any coherent plan during a first half in which his struggling team’s only shot was a wayward effort from 25 yards by Idrissa Gana in the 39th minute. Villa were unsure of themselves and their new shape limited their creativity and attacking impetus. Rudy Gestede and Scott Sinclair fed off scraps up front.
Villa were fortunate not to be behind at half-time. Stoke cut through them at will at times, Arnautovic escaping the clutches of Hutton on several occasions on the left, and they exposed the flaws in Sherwood’s system after four minutes, a slick combination between Bojan Krkic and Jonathan Walters releasing Mame Biram Diouf. Micah Richards saved Villa with a brilliant tackle.
Arnautovic had an appeal for a penalty ruled out when Hutton tackled him from behind and Stoke’s Austrian winger was justifiably aggrieved when he had a goal ruled out for offside shortly before the break. Replays showed that Arnautovic was at the very least level when he turned Bojan’s cross past Brad Guzan.
Stoke restricted Villa restricted to a burst from Jordan Veretout, who argued that he should have had a penalty when he fell in the area, and a couple of hopeful forays from the willing Sinclair. Something had to change and Sherwood, who betrayed his attacking instincts with his initial caution, by replacing Joleon Lescott with Jack Grealish at the start of the second half.
However the change meant that Stoke had more space to exploit and they took advantage of the extra gaps in the Villa defence when they scored in the 55th minute, Glen Johnson spotting an opening and sliding an accurate pass through to Arnautovic, who turned and slipped a shot past Guzan, the ball hitting the inside of the left post and rolling over the line.
Stoke deserved to be in front but the jolt of going behind stirred Villa from their torpor and they should have equalised moments later, only for Richards to send a free header wide from close range.
Villa’s application and effort could not be faulted. They battled furiously in their search for a goal in the final 30 minutes but their desperation, not to mention their searing lack of quality, was encapsulated by an attempt by Richards to con Mike Jones into giving him a penalty as the minutes ticked away.
Guardian