Glenn Whelan and Keinan Davis sat through illness, Robert Snodgrass scored, and Aston Villa collected three points at Riverside Stadium. Perhaps the most important win of 2017 occurred right at the end.
Aston Villa saved their best for last in 2017. After a winless run of five matches, Villa defeated Middlesbrough away from home via a second-half winner.
With a starting lineup of:Johnstone; Elmohamady, Elphick, Chester, Hutton; Jedinak, Hourihane, Onomah; Snodgrass, Hogan, Adomah, Steve Bruce made several changes following defeat at Brentford. Of note, the bench featured youngsters Callum O’Hare, Jake Doyle-Hayes, and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, and James Bree.
The match started pretty poor for the claret and blue as Boro started aggressively. Utilizing an uncharacteristic 4-2-4 from Tony Pulis, Boro hit the flanks with pace and tried crossing to Rudy Gestede a lot. Tommy Elphick, James Chester, and Mile Jedinak were fantastic in the air all afternoon. Big ups to Elphick in particular, who isn’t known to be a physical defender.
The moment of brilliance was brewing for awhile as Villa came close through a flurry of corners and an attempt on target from Jack Grealish. Adomah pin-pointed a ball to Snoddy who aided in ending 2017 on a high note.
All data provided by WhoScored match center.
Happy New Year, Villa Fans! The club goes again on Monday in another difficult tilt against promotion contender Bristol City.