Nick Pope denies Villa - The Times

[Paul Waine]

Jack Grealish keeps the armband but Nick Pope denies Villa
Aston Villa 0 Burnley 0

Alyson Rudd, Friday December 18 2020, 12.01am, The Times

Burnley climbed out of the relegation places with the sort of hard-working, solid, occasionally threatening, performance that implies they will keep on climbing. Aston Villa will wonder how on earth they did not at least score once from a plethora of chances but the manner of Burnley’s defending meant that the home side’s confidence in front of goal slowly ebbed away until they were relieved, bizarrely, to hear the final whistle. Many more missed opportunities and they would have begun to weep.

Sean Dyche has a way of establishing, in concrete, that his Burnley team are the plucky underdogs before every fixture. On this occasion he pointed out he was very interested in signing Ollie Watkins from Brentford in the summer but that his club simply did not have the budget to compete with Villa. Never mind that it was Villa, not Burnley, who only escaped relegation on the last day of the season with Dyche’s side finishing in a highly creditable tenth position, the Burnley manager prefers his players to look like outsiders.

Their defeat of Arsenal at the weekend underlined that they are far from Premier League gatecrashers even if they do like a smash and grab. Was this a smash-and-grab draw? The statistics would imply that it was given that Villa summoned 27 shots, seven of them on target, and they hit the woodwork twice.

The visiting side, though, were resolute in their attritional defending and Nick Pope once again delivered the sort of splendid game in goal that marks him out as in clear contention to be first choice for England. Pope possesses a calm solidity that Jordan Pickford lacks, and it seems curious that the highly sensible Gareth Southgate should prefer the more flamboyant yet error-prone goalkeeper.

“Nick Pope made a world- class save,” Dyche said of a fingertip stretch to stop an Anwar El Ghazi free kick. “His first job is to show me and his team-mates what a good goalkeeper he is.

“His second job is to show Gareth Southgate that.”

It was a night that Bertrand Traoré will need to place in context. The ball fell to the Burkina Faso international so often in front of goal that it felt he was being spoiled by the football gods yet he simply could not find a way to deceive Pope. The 25-year-old began to look rather forlorn but he was a handful for the Burnley defence and that he found the room to shoot so often has to be cherished.

That Villa kept on trying, kept on probing was thanks in large part to Jack Grealish who embarked on such a smart, fresh and alert run in the 90th minute that it seemed he might defy Pope to grab a late winner. Instead, his effort sailed slightly too high over the head of the Burnley goalkeeper.

The issue of whether a player convicted of a driving offence should carry on as his team’s captain was answered by Tottenham Hotspur two years ago when Hugo Lloris admitted a charge of drink driving. The Spurs captain kept the armband for the next game and has done ever since.

Grealish was fined £82,000 and banned from driving for nine months this week after admitting two counts of careless driving but his club stood by the England player. Last night he wore the armband as usual, darted all over the pitch, made himself available as a target man and an outlet for cornered team-mates, and embarked on those trademark jinking runs that almost always result in fouls.

There is no doubting his commitment to the cause but it remains a grey area whether a club should ignore off-field behaviour when appointing a captain. Grealish should be permitted to earn a living, of course, but it is less obvious why he deserves the honour of leading the team.

The game’s first good chance fell to Traoré and even at that early stage the strike lacked conviction. It was not all one-way traffic, though, as occasionally the Villa midfield was carved open, usually by Dwight McNeil, but Emiliano Martínez was in fine form too and claimed a particularly inviting cross from Jay Rodriguez. Mostly though, it was the Burnley box that saw most of the action. Matthew Lowton headed off the line after his goalkeeper was left stranded by a deflection that meant the ball struck Watkins and could have ricocheted in.

El Ghazi’s stunning free kick struck the crossbar as well as Pope’s fingers. It was El Ghazi’s first league start of the season and he had eight attempts at goal, most of which were at least hit in earnest. A header from Kortney Hause struck the post from Ahmed Elmohamady’s cross.

The Villa manager Dean Smith’s observation that “the only thing missing was the finishing,” was true if all too obvious.

Aston Villa (4-1-4-1): E Martínez 7 — A Elmohamady 6, K Hause 6, T Mings 6, M Targett 6 — M Nakamba 5 — B Traoré 6 (K Davis 80min), J McGinn 6, J Grealish 7, A El Ghazi 7 — O Watkins 6. Subs not used J Steer, N Taylor, C Hourihane, B Engels, F Guilbert, J Ramsey. Booked Watkins.

Burnley (4-4-2) N Pope 8 — M Lowton 7, J Tarkowski 7, B Mee 6, C Taylor 5 — R Brady 5 (E Pieters, 90), A Westwood 6, J Brownhill 6, D McNeil 6 — C Wood 6 (M Vydra, 82), J Rodriguez 6 (A Barnes 65, 5). Subs not used B Peacock-Farrell, P Bardsley, K Long, J Benson. Booked Brady.

[Stevie Morgan]

Good article, thanks for posting.

[Bosscat]

cheers paul

[CharlieinNewMexico]

Harsh on Brady and Taylor?
Late on Taylor got beat 3 times on 3 tricks/shimmies in the box and still got his block in.

[cricketfieldclarets]

We are lucky to have Pope. And I feel he loves being here too.

[Targetman]

We are lucky to have Pope. And I feel he loves being here too.

Howe might think differently though when he takes over!

[Burnley1989]

Howe might think differently though when he takes over!

We won’t need a good keeper when Howe comes in, we will be scoring more goals

[Bigvince]

We won’t need a good keeper when Howe comes in, we will be scoring more goals

And probably conceding considerably more!

[kritichris]

Well written article, enjoyed reading it thank you.

[tiger76]

Good article I'm glad Nick is finally getting the plaudits he deserves, and how many times have the opposition been left scratching their heads wondering what they have to do to beat this Burnley side, it's happened so regularly during Sean's time here that it's not a surprise anymore.

interesting observation on Grealish by the writer, should someone who's committed a serious breach of the law really be captaining a PL club?

Despite Villa's elevated league placing they are still not totally convincing in front of goal, and this failing could cost them mounting a European challenge, but they won't be anywhere near the relegation zone come May.

[bfcmik]

Despite Villa's elevated league placing they are still not totally convincing in front of goal, and this failing could cost them mounting a European challenge, but they won't be anywhere near the relegation zone come May.

Grealish aside I think they are a bottom end of the table team. With him they will be a decent mid table side.