Aston Villa locked horns with West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns earlier tonight looking to pick a win on their travels. The Villans made a dream start to the match as they took the lead in the fifth minute courtesy of Anwar El Ghazi’s goal. Jake Livermore received a red card in 36th minute, but the Baggies stood strong and went into the half-time break one goal and one man down.
The home side refused to give up without a fight in the second 45 minutes. However, Bertrand Traore finally killed the game off with his goal in the 84th minute before El Ghazi scored again to put the icing on the cake for the West Midlands outfit. The contest finished with Dean Smith’s men coming away with a dominant 3-0 win from the Hawthorns.
Let’s take a look at how each Aston Villa player performed during the clash against the Baggies.
GK: Emiliano Martínez – 6.5/10
The Villans keeper hardly had a save to make in the game and secured a comfortable clean sheet at the back.
RB: Matty Cash – 7/10
Cash performed his defensive duties well inside his half and was a threat going forward as well.
CB: Kourtney Hause – 7.5/10
Hause kept himself busy by reading the danger and clearing his lines when needed. He was also not shy about going in for tackles and produced a dominant performance at the heart of the Villa backline.
CB: Tyrone Mings – 7/10
The English centre-back stood up to the test when called into action and did enough to see out the three points with the clean sheet intact.
LB: Matt Targett – 7.5/10
Targett didn’t give away too much on the defensive end of the field and managed to engineer a couple of decent chances in the opposition half.
CM: John McGinn – 8/10
The Scottish talent made some important challenges during the game and showed great energy to pull off a few driving runs from midfield.
CM: Douglas Luiz – 7/10
The Brazilian midfield ace shielded his backline well and even managed to create a couple of inviting openings for his teammates.
LM: Anwar El Ghazi – 9/10
El Ghazi caused all sorts of problems for the West Brom defenders and scored two goals during the game. Smith will be over the moon with his performance today.
CAM: Jack Grealish – 9/10
The Villa captain orchestrated numerous promising chances for others around him and led his team from the front quite well. He also made some dangerous runs with the ball throughout the 90 minutes.
RM: Bertrand Traoré – 9.5/10
Traore was a constant nuisance for the Baggies defenders and got his deserved goal in the 84th minute which killed the contest off. He put in an outstanding performance in the opposition half tonight and just about deserves the man of the match award.
ST: Ollie Watkins – 6.5/10
The talented striker worked hard in the final third but will be disappointed for not getting his name on the scoresheet.
