Aston Villa 3 Burnley 2
Unai Emery’s side welcomed Burnley to Villa Park knowing, irrelevant to this result, they were going to end on the club’s highest ever points total at the halfway stage of a Premier League season. The visitors were only five points away from safety of the bottom three however.
The Clarets defending is often questionable and as a long ball dropped to Moreno, he was able to get the bouncing ball under his spell and flick onto Watkins in the box. The Villa striker swivelled and shot but Trafford watched it all of the way and made a decent save.
Aside from what happens to Burnley this season, their keeper looks that he is destined to a promising career and would likely be snapped up by another side. Being between the sticks for The Clarets this season is like being a trained plumber on the RMS Titanic.
The visitors were creating half chances on the counter and as a Vitinho long throw was only cleared to the edge of the box, Brownhill intercepted and managed to get a shot away. Martinez got down into the bottom corner and saved.
Credit: @premierleague
Finally Emery’s side broke the deadlock as Watkins did all the hard work before finding Bailey in the box. He cut inside and got a shot away on his favoured left-foot, which took a slight deflection, and beat Trafford as it flew into the top corner.
Vincent Kompany’s side weren’t willing to go down without a fight however and as a free kick was whipped into the box, O’Shea headed it back across goal for Amdouni to convert at the back post and silence the home faithful.
Burnley broke once again from an Aston Villa attack and Foster was put clean through on goal, slotting the ball past Martinez to give The Clarets the lead. The assistant immediately raised their flag for offside and a VAR review confirmed the decision, although the replay showed it was very tight.
You would think an offside decision would be pretty clear cut with video technology but once you consider what frame they pause play on and how the lines are administered to check for the decision it all becomes about as clear as a Tory MP’s version of how WhatsApp messages disappear without trace.
Watkins then showed his class as he caused problems in a wide position to find Diaby in the box, who had the easy task of poking the ball home from a couple of yards out. The replay implied this VAR review would be as tight as Foster’s to decide but the goal was allowed to stand.
Berge was shown a second yellow card early in the second half, which really put the visitors in a precarious position for the rest of this game. Foster broke once again and although he put his effort wide it seemed Diego Carlos had handled the ball.
Credit: @BurnleyOfficial
It was reviewed by VAR who decided no action was required. This again is the problem with the way things are run at the moment as they are given the power to make subjective decisions based on their own thought process.
They should have sent the referee to the monitor to decide for himself. Carlos did commit a handball offence and it should be the onfield official who is allowed to view the incident and not somebody in Stockley Park who is allocated that work for mainly not being good enough to be given a match to referee that day.
Ramsey then found McGinn outside the box, whose shot forced a save from Trafford. As Villa recycled the ball Diaby then drew another save from the Burnley stopper before the ball then came out to Douglas Luiz. His shot from outside the box went agonisingly close to bending in the top corner.
Some great football from Aston Villa saw Konsa cut the ball back to Ramsey who skied the ball over the bar when it seemed a goal was certain. Burnley countered and Foster smashed his effort past Martinez to give the ten men an unexpected equaliser.
As the hosts continued to knock on the door, Duran dispossessed Aaron Ramsey in the box who seemed to slightly clip the striker with his boot. The Villa striker went down like he had stepped on a piece of Lego barefoot and the official pointed to the spot.
The VAR process here is broken. It is not checking whether it is a penalty but if there was a glaring error by the referee in giving the spot kick. So the onfield decision massively impacts the outcome of the review. There was not enough contact to send him to the floor but also neither to overrule the decision.
Douglas Luiz stepped up in the 89th minute and thundered his effort against the underside of the bar, striking the floor, then bouncing into the roof of the net. Villa Park erupted and Emery’s side had grabbed an extremely late winner to take all three points.
Villa moved level with Liverpool at the top but while pundits talk of the season Leicester won the title and Emery’s side being in a title race, this is all a thing of fantasy. The reality is, Aston Villa will do well to get a top four finish, something which would be equivalent to a title win for the team.
Do not be fooled by the thoughts of Captain Smug, Gary Lineker, on Match of the Day. Emery is doing brilliantly with Villa this season but they are not good enough to win the title. Often Lineker’s thoughts, like his tweets, are just said to raise his own profile and he does not actually believe these things.
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