As Unai Emery saw his team slump to a fourth consecutive defeat at Anfield, lines from “Casablanca” were presumably not in the forefront of his thoughts, even if his season is rapidly in danger of being remembered by the slogan “We’ll always have Bayern.”
The famous victory over the Bundesliga giants from Munich at Villa Park at the start of October looked like being the moment his team announced they had arrived at the top table of European football.
Instead, a run of four straight defeats, and five games without a win, has threatened to leave his club’s season in tatters as they enter the international break eighth in the Premier League – possibly one or two places lower, depending on Sunday’s results.
Since the night of that memorable victory against Bayern, Villa have won just once in the league and taken five points from as many league games.
The run has also seen them exit the Carabao Cup, lose at home to Crystal Palace, as well as record a desultory 4-1 loss at Tottenham.
None of this was in the brochure when last season ended in delirium around Villa Park and a flurry of passport renewals, a place in the Champions League for the first time ever and the first time in Europe’s top competition since they defended it in 1982-83.
The five games without a win have also featured an unlucky, freak defeat at Club Brugge in midweek, courtesy of Tyrone Mings’ rush of blood in conceding a penalty, and there were also some creditable parts of this Anfield defeat.
But if anything summed up the turmoil and angst that Villa are currently going through, it was their performance at corners last night.
Every single one looked like producing a goal, the only question was whether it would be for Villa or Liverpool.
The answer was the latter, twice with the Liverpool goals, although it took two fine saves from Caoimhin Kelleher in the first half to deny Amadaou Onana and Diego Carlos from corners and keep the hosts goal intact.
“The Premier League is very difficult this year,” said Emery. “We are watching a team like Nottingham Forest, like Fulham, Brentford competing.
“We are not really imposing distance on these teams in the table, but then the only team now who is, is Liverpool. Maybe we’re not getting the levels this year we had last year but I’m still positive.
“It’s still my duty for the next months, and the season, and we’re still in the Champions League and okay, eighth in the Premier League, we want to be higher. We have to get that balance [between Premier and Champions League].”
It is a problem with which Eddie Howe will identify, if not sympathise, after his Newcastle side entered the Champions League on a wave of enthusiasm last season, only to finish bottom of their group after six games.
As injuries took their toll, Newcastle’s league form flatlined during December and January, on the way to eventually finishing seventh in May. And that was when the Champions League “only” featured six group games, as opposed to eight in the new, tortuously long format.
Villa not able to rely on Duran heroics
Villa, too, have had injury problems to contend with this season and, significantly, have not been able to rely on the heroics of “super sub” Jhon Duran of late. His eight goals, four in the league, is an impressive haul – not least because he has yet to make a Premier League start – but two goals for the entire Villa team in the last four games, three in the last five is a concern.
“They are fighting one of the best players in the world, [Virgil] van Dijk and we created attacks but needed a little bit more,” said Emery. “They are one of the better teams in the world, defensively.
“Last year we were close to Liverpool, two years ago we were close but this year the gap is bigger. The way we played them on the field, the gap is still there but I think we can reduce the distance over 38 matches when we have our [first choice] XI.”
