Sunderland and Aston Villa played out a vintage Premier League clash on Sunday afternoon, as Unai Emery’s hosts ultimately came away from the seven-goal thriller as 4-3 victors.
Villa looked to be cruising to a 17th victory of the Premier League season, after an Ollie Watkins brace and an early second-half strike from Morgan Rogers saw them race into a 3-1 lead.
But Sunderland’s never-say-die spirit began to shine through, and courtesy of two goals inside two minutes in the second half, the Wearside outfit were back on level terms.
Unfortunately, Tammy Abraham broke Black Cats’ hearts everywhere at the death, to secure a phenomenal 4-3 victory, as Luke O’Nien’s defensive performance, for the away side, came under heavy scrutiny at the full-time whistle.
O’Nien’s poor performance vs Aston Villa
Villa Park would erupt when Abraham prodded home his last-gasp winner, as the ex-Chelsea striker was in the right place at the right time, to connect with Lucas Digne’s inviting cross.
But, as much as it was an instinctive finish typical of a deadly centre-forward, O’Nien was far too weak in trying to close down the well-travelled attacker, with the 31-year-old suffering from a nightmare afternoon, all round, when trying to stifle Villa’s experienced forward line.
Indeed, the shaky number 13 failed to contain Ollie Watkins all afternoon long, leading to the reinvigorated marksman picking up a crucial brace to steer Emery and Co to victory.
He did manage to win all five of his duels and complete 51 of his 56 passes, but he was no match for the England international at full pelt in some decisive moments of the game, with O’Nien more used to the rough and tumble of the EFL than the Premier League.
He notably left Watkins completely unmarked for the opener with only two minutes played, which would then set the tone for the rest of his uncomfortable afternoon.
Amazingly, though, there was an underperformer in the Sunderland backline who was even more unconvincing than the 31-year-old.
Sunderland star was even worse than O’Nien vs Aston Villa
Sunderland’s defenders at Villa Park really did let the side down, as there were some very encouraging performances in the forward areas for Le Bris to latch on to.
Chris Rigg would delightfully curl home a strike for 1-1, after Watkins got the better of O’Nien early on, while Wilson Isidor would score his first Premier League strike for Le Bris and Co since October to level the breathless affair at 3-3.
Unfortunately, all these tenacious individual displays were in vain, as Reinildo offered up a shambolic defensive performance, himself, to now be in danger of the axe for Sunderland’s upcoming league matches.
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Reinildo’s numbers vs Villa |
|
|---|---|
|
Stat |
Reinildo |
|
Minutes played |
63 |
|
Touches |
34 |
|
Accurate passes |
19/24 (79%) |
|
Possession lost |
8x |
|
Tackles won |
0 |
|
Total duels won |
2/4 |
From his disastrous 63-minute runout in the West Midlands, the former Atletico Madrid full-back won only 50% of his duels, failed to win a single tackle, and lost possession eight times as a walking disaster for the visitors.
One of his sloppy losses of possession actually culminated in Rogers beating Robin Roefs, with Le Bris seeing enough just after the hour mark to haul him off the pitch.
At least O’Nien was confident with the ball at his feet, alongside winning all the tussles that came his way, with the Brazilian surely worried now that he will be dropped for Sunderland’s return to the Stadium of Light against Nottingham Forest, as Hume scored when coming on in his place at Villa Park.
With Dennis Cirkin Le Bris’ only other option in the left-back spot, away from playing the Northern Irishman slightly out of position, the summer ahead could well see the Black Cats try to strengthen down this flank, as the Mozambique international put in one of the worst performances of his season to date, in the high-octane 4-3 loss.
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