4 January 2025
Aston Villa 2 Leicester 1
Aston Villa welcomed Leicester City to Villa Park for a Midlands derby. The visitors had been struggling of late and their new manager was still trying to get the tune he was hoping for out of The Foxes. The hosts were lacking the consistency of the last campaign this season and, as a result, were not putting themselves in the mix as top four contenders with most people.
They created the first chance of the game as Cash worked the ball in from out wide. Watkins looked to get a first-time shot away but it was well blocked by Coady at the near post. The former Wolves defender had finally managed to secure himself a regular starting place in this Leicester team and was starting to find the form of old once again.
Unai Emery’s side lost the services of McGinn early on due to injury. He is always a major loss as he tends to make their midfield and attack tick. Ramsey replaced him but would have big shoes to fill. This is an area where Aston Villa do not really have the greatest of cover, something the manager would have chance to address in the transfer window.
Despite this, Villa continued to carve out chances. Cash once again was the provider from out wide and the hosts felt they should have had a penalty. The referee waved away their protests and the VAR review agreed with the official. Neither side were contributing to a Premier League classic by any stretch of the imagination at this stage of the game.
It almost seemed as though the Aston Villa who lined up for Champions League matches were a completely different team to the ones in domestic action this season. This is the thing with qualifying for Europe’s elite competition. Getting there is a lot easier than juggling both the subsequent European games with Premier League demands.
The first-half finished goalless and the only real winners were the season ticket holders who had found something else to do with their Saturday afternoon. Now it was over to the two managers to try and inspire their players to produce something a little more palatable after the break. It was a low bar to improve upon to be fair.
Van Nistelrooy’s side had a brilliant chance to take the lead soon after the restart. The ball found its way through to El Khannouss in the box, who held it up well before laying it off to Mavididi. He took the shot on first time but sent it sailing wide of the target with Martinez the most surprised out of everyone that he had not been asked to make a save.
You cannot afford to be missing chances like this as regularly as Leicester City do currently. In their previous game they had lost to Man City by what seemed, on paper, a comfortable two-nil defeat. The fact of the matter is that The Foxes created enough chances to win that game and really let Pep Guardiola’s side off the hook with their inadequacies in front of goal.
Watkins forced a corner as he looked to cut the ball back from the byline but once again Coady was alert to the danger. As The Foxes cleared their lines, Aston Villa recycled it well and it broke to Barkley on the edge of the box. He struck a sublime half-volley past Stolarczyk to break the deadlock as Villa Park erupted out of its slumber.
They say you are at your most vulnerable having just scored a goal. Watkins misplaced a pass to Mings and it was cut out by Ayew. He worked it forward to Vardy, whose shot was well saved by Martinez. However, Mavididi had the freedom of Aston at the back post and slotted home to give their fans something to celebrate in the away end.
Emery then rang the changes to try and get something from this game. The architect of that goal was to be one of the last people any Leicester player would have predicted, one of their own, James Justin. As they looked to play out from the back he dithered and got into all sorts of problems. Players just seem scared to get rid of the ball route one nowadays.
As he looked to pass it out, it was intercepted by Maatsen. He drove into the box and cut the ball back to Bailey, who slotted home to send the Villa fans wild. With just over ten minutes of the game remaining they had restored their lead against their local rivals. Van Nistelrooy will have been pulling his hair out on the touchline.
It is one thing to lose to a well-worked goal from the opposition, that is just life in the top-flight. But to create the chance by giving the ball away near your own penalty area is nothing short of criminal. The heads of the players seemed to drop as Villa wheeled away in celebration. You wondered if The Foxes had enough about them to regroup and go again.
The home fans were then to be left in a state of disbelief as to how they had not doubled their lead. Bailey cut inside from the wing and thundered a shot at goal that struck the underside of the crossbar. The rebound fell to Buendia but his effort was blocked. It dropped to Watkins, all of two yards out, who somehow fired over the crossbar. Incredible passage of play.
Unai Emery’s side held on for the win and more importantly the three points. They moved into eighth spot in the Premier League table, now just four points away from Chelsea in fourth. Leicester are two points adrift now in the bottom three and it will take some second half of the season to secure their Premier League survival.
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