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Crisis is real now: Three things we learned about Aston Villa in win v Sheff Wed
By Matt Farr
Football Insider analyses three major talking points from Aston Villa’s 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship on Saturday.
Injury crisis is real now
Steve Bruce just cannot catch a break at the moment and Aston Villa have got a full-blown injury crisis on their hands now. They have a great chance to improve their position in the Championship before the end of the season, but the task has been made much harder after the loss of several key players to injury. Bruce was already without Jack Grealish, Birkir Bjarnason, Scott Hogan, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Andre Green ahead of his preparations for Saturday’s clash with Sheffield Wednesday, but they were dealt another significant blow when Henri Lansbury was forced to withdraw from the starting eleven with a knock picked up in the warm up. It got worse for Villa as defender Nathan Baker became the next casualty, suffering an injury just 25 minutes into the game. Aston Villa’s heavily depleted resources has scraped the squad down to the bare bones, and with some important fixtures on the horizon, they simply cannot afford to lose another player.
Kodjia comes up with the goods
Ahead of kick-off, Bruce had urged his players to contribute more in front of goal. Villa have heavily relied on Jonathan Kodjia for their goals this season, with no other player currently at the club with more than three league goals to their name. While Bruce makes an excellent point, he will no doubt be thankful that Kodjia was there to be called upon against Sheffield Wednesday, as the Ivory Coast striker came up with the goods yet again. He netted both goals to send Villa to a priceless 2-0 victory over the promotion-chasers. The 27-year-old now has 15 goals for the club this season, and it would be interesting to see where Villa would have ended up this season without him.
A huge three points
Given their endless injury setbacks, three points and a clean sheet is a superb result from Aston Villa’s perspective. The players have come under a lot of criticism for their inconsistent performances throughout the season, but against Sheffield Wednesday, they gave the display that was required; and the reward was a precious three points. With a promotion place out the window for the current campaign, it is up to Bruce and his players to steer the club as far away from the bottom three as they can, and the result against the Owls sees them jump to 12th. It was a hugely valuable result for the club, and they must take their confidence into the remaining nine games of the season, and give the fans the best possible finish that they deserve.
In other Aston Villa news, Jamie Carragher has admitted he was delighted when this Aston Villa transfer fell through.
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