The Holy Trinity: Aston Villa conclusions from squeaky Europa League win against Basel

Villa won 2-1 in Switzerland to make it five wins from six in the league phase of the Europa League

On Thursday night, Aston Villa came up against a team with a plan and a lot of quality on the ball. The team – eight changes in all from the previous Premier League match – got the job done, but it was a close-run thing.

Villa got the first goal against Basel in the league phase of the Europa League and it should have been the deciding factor, so deliberately passive were the opposition for much of the first half.

But Villa failed to heed the wake-up call of a disallowed equaliser, instead allowing it to provide Basel with a way back into the game.

Unai Emery’s team were all out of whack for a while and it was only a piece of quality off the bench that rescued them.

Here’s your Holy Trinity of match conclusions.