Unai Emery and Aston Villa are in one of the worst moments of the season. On Thursday, on the traditional Boxing Day matchday, the Birmingham team suffered their fifth straight defeat away from home in the Premier League against Newcastle (3-0) and dropped to ninth place in the table.
To top it off Jhon Durán was expelled in the first half at St James’ Park after a controversial refereeing decision, which Emery strongly protested, since the Colombian striker stepped on the back of defender Fabian Schär when fell upon him in a running struggle between the same players.
The appeal was rejected
Although Aston Villa attempted to overturn the straight red card as they deemed the play to be unfortunate and unintentional, their appeal was unsuccessful and Emery was left without one of his key players in the next three games in which he will be suspended after an automatic suspension that requires expulsion from the Premier League.
Durán was, along with Ollie Watkins, the leading scorer of Aston Villa in the Premier, both with 7 goals. The Colombian scored the first four as a substitute and the remaining three as a starter, with Emery deciding to finally give him a place in the starting eleven for the final four days.
Now Durán will get through games league matches against Brighton (Monday) and Leicester (January 4) as well as the 1/32 final of the FA Cup against West Ham (January 10). Three games Aston Villa will play at their stadium, where they have a better result (one defeat) and beat Manchester City two days ago (2-1).
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
