Too professional to sit one out, too tough to beat, too hot to stop. If this is the end of Marc Guehi’s relationship with Crystal Palace, then presumably Aston Villa must wish all farewells could be enacted so fondly.
We will get to Unai Emery’s awkward love triangle with Emiliano Martinez and Manchester United in a moment. But first we go to Guehi, who demonstrated on Sunday night why he will be remembered with such enthusiasm at Palace if Liverpool pull off his signing.
That deal is not a foregone conclusion, but the qualities of this defender cannot be understated, as shown in a performance where he resisted waves of Villa attacks and then kicked them hard in the spuds with a superb goal for 2-0.
It was a beauty. A top corner-finish from a top-drawer player. If Liverpool are able to capitalise on Palace’s worries about an expiring contract, then any fee in the ballpark of £35million will rank as an outstanding piece of business.
Naturally, that is predicated on Oliver Glasner not getting his way – he is desperate to keep the centre-half and Guehi’s contribution at Villa Park indicated a respect that runs in both directions. There was never any chance of him going on strike. Of lacking the requisite focus.
And yet Liverpool are confident they will get him, such is the fear of Palace chairman Steve Parish if the alternative is losing Guehi for nothing.Â
Marc Guehi scored a brilliant goal as Crystal Palace beat Aston Villa 3-0 at Villa Park
Guehi found the top corner with a lovely strike on what may have been his last game for Palace
To the last ticks of the deadline, Glasner is imploring him to resist the temptation, and he reiterated the messaging after this match.
He said: ‘I like Marc, he is such a professional player and such a nice guy. We have to keep him. We don’t have the right replacement, so for me, it is clear we keep him.’
Time will tell on that. As for Villa and Martinez, that appears more straightforward.
Given United’s urgency around a new goalkeeper, the dots were joined by most here when the team sheets came in and Martinez was nowhere to be seen. Cue a strange pre-match interview with Emery.
What was the reason for Martinez’s absence, he was asked: ‘Marco Bizot.’ Where is Martinez? ‘Marco Bizot.’ Will he be your future goalkeeper? ‘Marco Bizot.’
To the question of who would give away a first-half penalty, the same answer would have sufficed. After the match, Martinez admitted Martinez could not be picked because he lacked ‘100 per cent focus’, so we can reasonably conclude the player wants out, though Villa sources insisted he was not refusing to play.
For Villa to lose the Argentine will be the kind of blow from which it is hard to recover. A loony, yes, but immensely gifted all the same.
In his absence, Villa were chewed up and spat out, but only after hinting once again that their attack needs more work than any other department, goalkeeping included. They are not scoring and even on nights such as this, when they created far more than achieved against Newcastle and Brentford combined, the cost is high. It was their first home loss in the league for more than a year.
The defender found the top corner with a lovely strike that may prove to be a parting gift
Guehi celebrated in front of the travelling Crystal Palace fans, who showed their appreciation
Either side of Guehi’s wonderful strike was Jean-Philippe Mateta’s penalty and a bundled finish from Ismaila Sarr.Â
The rest of the night? Palace had only three others shots to Villa’s 13, which is a fairly neat summary of how this one went. With it, Palace had their first league win of the campaign and Villa are still waiting and asking questions of how to fix it.
Emery’s latest efforts to answer them meant a full five changes to the side beaten at Brentford.Â
Of those coming in, Ezri Konsa was an upgrade at the back and the trio of Ian Maatsen, Donyell Malen and Evann Guessand were geared towards greater pace and width. Having achieved the grand total of five shots on goal in their previous two games, the need for broader thinking had merit.
Or at least the theory did. They managed to create more, but all that achieved was a greater collection of misses. For that, Youri Tielemans was partially culpable by blowing two free-headers early on and Ollie Watkins prodded straight at Dean Henderson in a wasteful first half.
Emery’s exasperation in this area has been illustrated by his interest in Lucas Paqueta. If his badge-kissing for West Ham on Sunday was not too discouraging, there might yet be another move for the Brazilian.Â
A move to bring back Marco Asensio appears even less likely, though Viktor Lindelof is expected to arrive to satisfy part of Emery’s request for one defender and two attackers.
Without those reinforcements, sucker punches will never be far away. In this fixture, that was shown by the penalty against the run of play and awarded after Mateta slipped a line-breaking ball into Daichi Kamada’s path. When the forward side-stepped Bizot, it drew the foul. Mateta sent Bizot the wrong way from the spot.
Jean-Philippe Mateta opened the scoring from the penalty spot midway through the first half
Ismaila Sarr completed a perfect evening for the visitors with the third goal of the night
From there, Palace struggled to maintain control, with the notable exception of Adam Wharton.Â
With Eberechi Eze gone and Guehi’s future in the balance, Wharton will presumably draw intense interest in coming windows – his reading of a game is exceptional.
That he was injured early in the second half was a shame, though his removal appeared precautionary. Emery confirmed he will have a scan on his hamstring that will threaten his place in the England squad.
His removal here allowed greater domination by Villa, who in succession saw good chances left untaken by Tielemans and Emiliano Buendia before the next set of gut punches from Guehi and Sarr. Martinez’s exit could hurt more in the longer term.
