Aston Villa 1-1 Bournemouth

Aston Villa were denied victory by a Bournemouth equaliser in the final seconds of their Premier League clash at Villa Park as the team’s unbeaten run stretched to 11 games.

Ross Barkley’s first goal for Aston Villa since January 2021 looked to be enough to secure all three points, with the midfielder turning home from close range after 76 minutes.

But the Cherries, who’d rarely tested Emi Martínez, snatched a draw with the penultimate act of the game when Evanilson glanced a header into the bottom corner.

The hosts were thwarted time and again throughout the encounter by inspired visiting goalkeeper Mark Travers, who produced terrific stops from OIlie Watkins, Pau Torres, Ezri Konsa and Amadou Onana.

Villa will now turn their attention to the Carabao Cup, with a home game against Crystal Palace to come on Wednesday.

Emery shuffled his starting XI and brought Watkins, Jacob Ramsey, Matty Cash and Lucas Digne into the team to face the Cherries, four days on from a 2-0 success against Bologna in the Champions League.

Two of those changes, Ramsey and Watkins, were involved in the creation of the first chance of the game after seven minutes when they combined before teeing up Morgan Rogers, who sent a shot over the bar from the edge of the box.

The hosts were controlling the game and probing for openings, manufacturing a first shot on target when Youri Tielemans spun in the box and saw a left-footed drive parried away by Travers.

Villa’s set pieces have led to a number of goals already this season and when Digne curled a free-kick to the back post, only a superb fingertip save from Travers kept out Onana’s header.

Villa Park erupted in the 28^th minute when the home side hit the back of the net, with McGinn placing a shot into the far corner. The Bournemouth players reacted with fury at the linesman for failing to signal the ball had crossed the byline in the build-up, and VAR eventually sided with them to disallow the goal, showing Watkins had failed to keep the ball in play by the slimmest of margins.

At the other end, there had been little for Martínez to do before Justin Kluivert fizzed a long-range shot towards goal, with the travelling support looking on as the Argentine parried it wide.

Konsa’s rasping half-volley was tipped over by Travers as the home side cranked up the pressure without reward before the break.

Barkley replaced Onana, who picked up an early booking, at half-time, and the midfielder spurned a difficult chance within minutes of coming on as Tielemans’ corner struck him and ricocheted narrowly over the bar.

Jhon Durán was introduced in place of Rogers just before the hour mark, with the change signalling a switch to two up front.

Despite the Colombian’s arrival, it was the left boot of Pau Torres that almost provided a route to goal when his dipping drive was plucked out of the top corner by Travers.

The Cherries ‘keeper was in inspired form and he kept his clean sheet intact from the resulting corner by acrobatically tipping Watkins’ header over the bar.

With the minutes ticking by, a glorious chance fell to the left foot of Durán, who lashed narrowly wide following great work from Ramsey and Watkins.

The frustration inside Villa Park was relieved just two minutes later when substitutes Ian Maatsen and Leon Bailey combined with the latter cushioning the former’s cross into the path of Barkley, who swivelled and prodded home from close range.

Villa survived a handball shout against Bailey as Bournemouth tried to rouse a response and they looked set to secure the three points until the visitors struck in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

Evanilson glanced home a header from Marcus Tavernier’s free-kick, with the referee blowing for full-time upon the restart.