Aston Villa 2-2 Queens Park Rangers: Player Ratings on New Year’s Day
By Josh Tonti
Aston Villa Football Club began 2019 on a dour note. The claret and blues drew with Queens Park Rangers 2-2 at Villa Park with Tammy Abraham recording a brace.
Tammy Abraham’s brace spared Villa the embarrassment of home defeat on New Year’s Day. In a lineup of fresh faces, Dean Smith’s men could not hold on to an early 1-0 leading, succumbing to a QPR counter that caused havoc for 65+ minutes.
Tommy Elphick and Jed Steer slotted-in immediately to the starting XI after each returned on-loan, respectively. Joining them were James Bree, who moved to right-back, and Yannick Bolasie and Jonathan Kodjia – the wingers in Tuesday’s affair.
Villa nemesis’s Eberechi Eze and Pawel Wszolek again sliced through the backline for much of the contest with Luke Freeman scoring a sublime solo effort from twenty-five yards out.
On a day in which Villa just didn’t have it, the club was spared, slightly, by other results. Leeds United, Norwich City, Derby, Blues, Middlesbrough, and West Brom all failed to record wins on New Year’s Day.