The Sunday Mail
MARVELOUS NAKAMBA had just one touch of the ball, but it did not matter much as his Aston Villa stemmed a bad patch to return to winning ways with victory away to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux yesterday.
The Warriors midfielder was brought in as a substitute deep into injury-time as Villa looked to close the game after a stoppage time penalty by fellow substitute Anwar El Ghazi had put them into the lead.
Although Nakamba has been making the match-day squad at Villa, the Zimbabwean international has struggled to hold out a starting place in Dean Smith’s side.
The Wolves players walked out to a banner the size of three double-decker buses in the Steve Bull stand.
“Fuerza Raul,” it read, translating to “Strength for Raul”. Above Molineux was a plane pulling the wordage: “Get well soon.”
How they missed that man in this West Midlands Derby. In Raul Jimenez’s absence, the bragging rights went to Aston Villa, in another game that brandished talking points about Mike Dean’s style of refereeing.
You either love him or loathe him, and Villa can only adore Dean for his conviction in awarding them a stoppage-time penalty. El Ghazi buried the spot-kick, the players roared at the full-time whistle and huddled together in a show of unity.
With Jimenez sidelined because of that horrific head injury, and with Diogo Jota now sporting the red of Liverpool, Nuno Espirito Santo had to decide who was worthy of leading the line. He chose Fabio Silva, with the 18-year-old who cost a club-record £35,6million making his first Premier League start.
For the fourth consecutive game, Nuno also selected a back four, further confirmation that his traditional back three is firmly out of favour. With no supporters, the vocal Conor Coady could be heard clearly, and the majority of his shouting was aimed at right back Nelson Semedo.
Perhaps that was because Semedo was up against Jack Grealish. The Villa captain is currently the Premier League’s most-fouled player — a statistic routinely reserved for tricky customers. One kicking for Grealish after 25 minutes left him hobbling, though as he so often does, the 25-year-old shook it off and continued to drive at the Wolves defence.
Villa had screamed for a spot-kick when the ball struck the arm of Romain Saiss following a cross. Earlier in the season, when anything and everything was being awarded, VAR would have been halting play for a penalty. They gave nothing here, deciding Saiss did not make himself bigger. — Dailymail-Sports Reporter.
