Aston Villa finally scored their first Premier League goal of the season but, on this quietly concerning evidence, Unai Emery’s quest for last season’s mislaid form is far from over.
In marked contrast, Sunderland were a study in resilience, belief and impressive organisation. Régis Le Bris’s side could easily have folded after the 33rd-minute dismissal of their left-back Reinildo Mandava for violent conduct and the rare second-half mistake from Robin Roefs that allowed Matty Cash to shoot Emery’s team ahead from 25 yards.
Instead, with the central defenders Nordi Mukiele and Omar Alderete outstanding, Le Bris’s 10 men simply regrouped before Wilson Isidor half-volleyed his third league goal of the season to strip the shine from the Villa manager’s weekend.
With seconds remaining an increasingly agitated Emery was evidently so disgusted by the visitors’ passivity that he turned on his heel, briefly shook Le Bris by the hand and stormed down the tunnel.
“We have to accept one point but this is not how we want to be as a team,” said Villa’s manager. “We need to get our identity back. We need to get confident again. I’m frustrated and disappointed. It should have been easier playing against 10 men but we’re not playing with the identity we’ve shown in the last three years. For me, it’s not enough.”
Emery added: “We were lazy sometimes in defence. For example, when we conceded we were lazy.”
Le Bris seemed somewhat more content. “It was a good draw,” he said after his promoted side’s eighth point in five games. “We started really well. Then came the red card but we reacted very well. We made a new gameplan, the team did really well in a deep block and it became a set piece game. I really liked our reaction to Villa’s goal, it would have been easy to give up but we showed we wanted to suffer together. The value of this point is really important.”
With 11 men it could easily have been three points, especially as Chris Rigg had shimmered in midfield on his first Premier League start. Poor Rigg was sacrificed as Le Bris sent on an extra defender and switched to a back five after Reinildo’s exit, but there is surely much more to come from the talented 18-year-old.
With Rigg still on the pitch it had taken some fine defending on Ezri Konsa’s part to deny Isidor as the striker repeatedly threatened Emiliano Martínez’s goal.
Morgan Rogers remained worryingly isolated and seemingly unable to link Villa’s attacking play, and Roefs was left largely untested throughout a first half dominated by the moment when Cash slid in to drag Reinildo down and then, inadvertently, fell on top of the former Atlético Madrid defender. Reinildo, the first player from Mozambique to appear in England’s top tier, took so much exception to this that he flicked out his right leg and raked the inside of the right-back’s thigh with his studs.
An early exit ensued, prompting a home reshuffle featuring Rigg’s withdrawal and Dan Ballard’s introduction.
One thing that stayed unchanged though was the way Ollie Watkins continued to toil forlornly at centre-forward for Villa. Alderete, a Paraguay defender, very nearly reminded him how to score but directed a header against the underside of the bar.
Suitably encouraged, Sunderland forced a series of corners and throws – Mukiele takes a seriously mean long throw – as Villa could easily have been mistaken for the team at a numerical disadvantage. Tellingly, Emery’s increasingly agitated touchline gesticulations frequently appeared infinitely more dynamic and urgent than his players’ often strangely passive passing and movement.
The moment in the 67th minute when Cash tried his luck from 25 yards and watched his hard, viciously swerving shot misread by Roefs promised to be a turning point, but it would ultimately prove a false dawn.
Sunderland’s Netherlands Under-21 goalkeeper looked quietly furious with himself after his attempt at a punch merely left his fingertips grazed by Cash’s strike. Creditably, his teammates refused to fold and the intelligence of Granit Xhaka and Enzo Le Fée in a necessarily narrow midfield continued to drive Sunderland forward.
When the former directed the subtlest of cushioned headers over Emery’s backline, Isidor’s low, scoring shot left Martínez helpless and his manager incandescent.
The late moment when Watkins failed to make any sort of contact with the most inviting of balls into the box from the substitute Jadon Sancho seemed a microcosm of his team’s enduring travails.
