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Follow us on Twitter @claretandview // Words by Regan Foy (@FindFoy)
If there is one person that should be praised after the latest result, it’s Sam Johnstone. The keeper pulled off a number of incredible saves throughout the game to keep Villa in it, and the result would have been much more of an embarrassing one for Aston Villa.
Whilst the result isn’t what fans wanted, or what the team needed – there are positives within the bore-draw. This was Villa’s first clean sheet of the season. Perhaps using the plural of positive is a bit of a stretch.
This was a game that Villa were expected to win, and they didn’t even come close. The only time they tested the opposition goalkeeper Daniel Bentley was late in the second half, and even that attempt on goal wasn’t anything special.
The first-half wasn’t special. Villa failed to record a shot on target and the Bee’s forward Neal Maupay had their best chance of the half, firing it into the side-netting.
The second half was all Brentfords, forcing Johnstone into a number of acrobatic saves and carving open the Villa defence with pacy forwards. Realistically, they should have returned to London with all three points.
Late in the game there were issues with Andre Green, Keinan Davis and Josh Onomah, who were replaced by Snodgrass, Hogan and Agbonlahor.
The introduction of Snodgrass provided a new spark to the Villa attack, but they weren’t able to capitalise and looked devoid of any attacking threat when balls were played into the box from both set pieces and crosses.
Brentford were without some of their better players that they lost in the transfer window, and the result should have been a strong Villa win. Fans are waiting with baited breath to see Tuesday’s result against Middlesbrough.
If Bruce fails to win, his head will be edging ever closer to the chopping block – a block that’s been set up by some fans already. Tony Xia isn’t happy with today’s result, reading his recent tweet, and fans will expect him to be ruthless if the results don’t start coming thick and fast.
