Aston Villa 0, Sheffield United 0
After the unique season we have had it wouldn’t be the Premier League without a bit of VAR controversy as goal-line technology somehow failed to spot a clear goal for Sheffield United as Project Restart stumbled.
Embed from Getty ImagesProject Restart got back underway 100 days after the last kick off – a 4-0 Leicester City win over Aston Villa – and under significantly different circumstances following the COVID19 related lockdown.
The title race may have been all but over but the drama was certainly not with relegation far from certain and European spots complicated by Manchester City’s Court of Arbitration for Sport appeal against their two year ban from the Champions League.
Sheffield United were bidding to leapfrog Manchester United into fifth place – potentially a Champions League spot but the goalless draw saw them rise into sixth while Villa could not escape the bottom three after playing their game in hand.
United loanee Dean Henderson was certainly the busier of the two goalkeepers as Villa tried to make the most of a good start at home but fluffed their lines again with Keinan Davies, making his Premier League debut, testing him constantly while John McGinn also failed to break the deadlock.
And if you were missing VAR before there will have been many Sheffield United fans asking why it wasn’t used when goal-line technology failed to come out of self isolation just before half time after goalkeeper Orjan Nyland appeared to carry a flighted ball from Oli Norwood over his own goalline.
Villa Park was eerily quiet despite the best efforts of the sound system trying to add atmosphere in the build-up.
The Black Lives Matter lettering on the backs of the players shirts along with recognition of the work of the NHS on the front of shirts also lent a sober edge to the pre-match proceedings, with a minute of silence to remember the casualties of the virus that has taken tens of thousands of lives in the UK.
A further powerful pre-match show of support for Black Lives Matter saw all the players and the referee Michael Oliver take a knee just before kick off.
Players also had a pre-arranged drinks break midway through each half while Sky effectively offered the option of artificial crowd noise depending on which channel you were watching.
Inevitably, knocks and cramp crept into the game towards the end as the Blades finished strongly but could not get the goal that they had been robbed of earlier in the game.