Aston Villa were narrowly edged out by West Midlands rivals Wolves as they fell to a disappointing 1-0 defeat at the Molineux Stadium on Saturday (6 May).
Unai Emery’s men fell behind after just ten minutes when Toti wriggled clear of his marker to powerfully head home beyond Emi Martinez.
Despite great chances falling for the likes of Ollie Watkins and Tyrone Mings, the Villans couldn’t quite muster up an equaliser succumbing to their second successive Premier League defeat and hampering their chances of a European place.
After scoring in every one of their Premier League encounters under Emery before last weekend’s defeat to Manchester United, it is also now two games without scoring for Aston Villa as they struggled to open up a stout and resilient Wolves defence.
The visitors dominated possession and went close to equalising in the first half through Emiliano Buendia and Ollie Watkins, before Ashley Young steered a low, curling shot past Jose Sa’s right-hand post early in the second half.
And much of those opportunities came through the invention one of their most innovative and on-song stars in Buendia who put in a superb showing despite the disappointing defeat.
The Argentinian international may have been the worst-rated player for the Villans against Manchester United last weekend, but he was by a stretch their best on Saturday [6 May] as he was arguably Villa’s only source of invention and creativity against a rugged Wolves defence.
As per Sofascore, Buendia was actually the second-best player on the Molineux pitch picking up an impressive individual score of 7.5/10, also picking up a man-of-the-match 8/10 rating by Villa News.
Despite successfully completing just 69% of his passes, Buendia was a cut above everyone else in a Villa shirt, completing 100% of his dribbles, registering two key passes, winning seven of his nine ground duels, two of his three aerial duels despite his small frame and won three fouls.
None of his teammates were on his level on today and the Argentinian maestro will certainly feel let down by his teammates as they suffered yet another off day in front of goal.
If the Villans are to kickstart their faint European hopes in their remaining three games, Buendia will be incredibly crucial to those chances, but his Aston Villa teammates will have to follow his lead also.
