Aston Villa Recap: Canaries embarrass Villa at Carrow Road

A flurry of second half goals sealed a Norwich City victory at their home ground. Aston Villa fell flat in another roadblock in their promotion bid.

A beautifully sunny, if not a bit chilly Carrow Road was the scene on Saturday as Aston Villa traveled to Norwich City.

The Lineups:

For Steve Bruce, it is the same matchday squad that defeated Reading 3-0 midweek: Johnstone; Elmohamady, Chester, Terry, Taylor; Bjarnason; Snodgrass, Grealish, Hourihane, Adomah; Hogan. Norwich City manager Daniel Farke includes several big names on the bench.

First-Half:

Started innocently enough and a bit on the slower side. The first real chance of the match came from James Maddison, who earned a free kick from 25-yards out in the 9th-minute. He sent it over, but the match opened-up thereafter. Birkir Bjarnason bossed the middle of the park for a good twenty minutes. Both he and Jack Grealish fluidly transitioned from defense into attack. Grealish in particular found Scott Hogan on a pair of dangerous through balls. They did not amount to anything, but it was good sign for the rest of the match.

But it could not have been more deceiving. Norwich’s Mario Vrancic dealt John Terry some serious damage with a studs-showing tackle near the sideline. It was the first of three bookable offenses Vrancic got away with and Villa went downhill after Terry received treatment. The Canaries were able to score directly before halftime via Josh Murphy’s wonder strike:

Second Half:

1-0 at halftime felt insurmountable given Villa’s second half tactical struggles all season. Dennis Srbeny scored the second after a defensive breakdown from the Villa backline. Ahmed Elmohamady was torched down the wing by the aforementioned Murphy. His cross found Harrison Reed who played a simply lobbed through ball to Dennis Srbeny. One-on-one with Sam Johnstone, he scored.

Lewis Grabban and Jonathan Kodjia came on for wingers Robert Snodgrass and Albert Adomah immediately after. The latter pair were terrible, but the formation became some sort of narrow 4-3-3 with no wide players and three strikers. Jack Grealish sparked life back with a well-hit, albeit fortunate, goal from just outside the box. The ball took a deflection and squeaked by Norwich ‘keeper Angus Gunn. James Maddison and Josh Murphy again ended all hope with a blazing counter-attacker for The Canaries’ third.

The final ten minutes could have seen a Norwich 4th, 5th, and 6th goal too. Cardiff City on Tuesday awaits.