Aston Villa 3 Crystal Palace 1
Unai Emery’s side welcomed Crystal Palace to Villa Park, where they had won eight Premier League games in a row. Roy Hodgson was missing from the game after he had fallen ill, all the best Woy.
Villa had an early chance when the ball was gifted to Ollie Watkins who ran clear through on goal but Sam Johnstone was equal to his effort as he made a good save, low down to his left. Big chance for the hosts.
Emery’s side were struggling to break down the visitors until Moussa Diaby ran clear and put the ball in the back of the net, only to then see it ruled out by VAR for offside. Replays showed that the attacker was just off.
Zaniola showed some silky footwork on the byline before cutting the ball back to an unmarked Matty Cash. The Villa full back scuffed at his shot and failed to trouble the Crystal Palace keeper. Digne then found the same man in the box but he could not keep his header down as it sailed over the crossbar.
Credit: @CPFC
Both sides headed in at the interval level, although Aston Villa will have felt that they had created more than enough scoring opportunities to be in front. They just seemed to be lacking a clinical edge in front of goal, although two of their best chances had fallen to the wrong player in Cash.
As is the way, as the second half started, Palace came forward with Mateta who whipped a cross in behind the Villa back four for Edouard to sweep ball past Martinez to make it one-nil to the visitors. The home fans were left shellshocked.
The Villa goalkeeper will feel he should have cut out the cross but he slipped as it was played, making the job of scoring that much easier for the Palace striker. That’s what watering your pitch at half-time can do.
A long ball downfield by Johnstone almost caught Villa out as Eze nicked the ball from the head of Cash but fortunately for Unai Emery, Martinez was quick off his line this time to smother the shot of the attacker.
Leon Bailey started to create some problems for Palace down the right flank, his cross was palmed out by Johnstone before an effort from the edge of the box from the Villa youngster Duran tested the Palace keeper.
Doucoure then played an exquisite scoop over the Villa defence to put Eze in but as he tried to chip it over the Aston Villa keeper, Martinez just managed to get a hand to it, preventing the visitors from sealing a victory.
Credit: @AVFCOfficial
Lucas Digne is proving to be a dangerous customer with his balls in from the left wing, in the 87th minute he found Duran who chested it down to swivel and shoot, with the ball arrowing into the top corner. What a strike.
As the fourth official raised his board to indicate a huge amount of added time, it was not until the 98th minute that a challenge on Ollie Watkins caused the player to go to ground and the referee immediately pointed to the spot.
VAR reviewed it and asked the referee to go to the monitor. Usually this leads to a reversal of the decision but this time the referee stuck with his original decision. Douglas Luiz stepped up and slotted the ball past Johnstone to make it 2-1.
The visitors were devastated that they had fallen at the final hurdle, additional time. To rub salt in the wound, as Crystal Palace pushed forward looking for an equaliser, Villa counter attacked with Diaby down the left. He timed his cross to perfection to find Bailey, who took one touch before smashing the ball home.
It seemed a convincing win if you just saw the scoreline but it does not tell the story of the whole game. Villa did create chances but were wasteful and really only got their act together in the last twenty minutes of the game.
Either way, it was another home win for Unai Emery’s side and Crystal Palace will not have cheered up the under the weather Roy Hodgson, wherever he was watching the game from.
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