Aston Villa managed to come back and defeat Bournemouth, keeping their hopes alive for a top-four finish and securing a spot in the Champions League.
It took only three days after successfully getting to the penalties in the Europa Conference League with Lille to ensure they advance to the next round for them to gear fast forward for their best position as any club in the Premier League for the past 28 years.
The rain was never going to stop, but things didn’t start on the correct foot as Bournemouth’s skipper, Matty Cash, fouled Milos Kerkez from the danger mark inside the box, and their top goalscorer, Dominic Solanke, wasn’t going to miss from the spot.
Despite the bad start, Villa stuck to their game by playing positively, and in the stop before halftime, Morgan who was signed in January scored in the top corner.
Despite taking a narrow loss with extra time against their opponent in Europe on Thursday, Villa displayed no indication of exhaustion or weariness. But there was a reverse side show when the match advanced.
In minute 57, wing Moussa Diby with his goal added to Villa’s score after a brilliant team effort. Converting all such efforts that Leon Bailey made in 20 minutes, the hosts joined a very comfortable position.
Silva Villa dropped down to fourth and this time made a six-point lead from Spurs in fifth place. Spurs also have the advantage of two games at hand against us. And, differently from Bournemouth, their club stands in the 13th position of the tournament.
What a difference a week makes
Several wins have made this week fantastic for Villa. The Gunners went into last weekend’s game with just a single point to their name from their first two games, but they managed to turn it around when they defeated them. On Thursday, they kindly invited Lille and kicked them out on penalties to reach a European semi-final for the first time since 1982. Villa Park game week for them was effortless with the result that they still can sustain their position among the top four.
In the beginning, Villa had everything in hand. They rolled up the pitch, that is they quickly transported the ball to the attack. till at the deadline of half-time when Roger received the equalizer, they could not even create better shots.
With the transfer from Middlesbrough to Villa just four months on, Rogers has already proved a success. His second league goal under the Sharks jersey was as clever as it was. He started by dodging Smith’s challenge and placing the ball right beyond the goalkeeper Neto.
Villa took over in this half. Their rhythm was being controlled by Ollie Watkins as he made some efforts to shoot. This came to an end when Watkins set up Diaby and Villa were putting on the board.
The team of Unai Emery kept on pouncing for a third goal, locking it in the 78th minute. As the league assist leader, Wakins’ clip delivery to the box was great and Bailey got a free one.
Emery, talking to BBC Match of the Day after the match, said: “The impact of this new rule is that we have to exert a greater effort, as we won’t qualify for the Champions League anymore even if we finish fifth, unlike previous seasons when English teams took the fourth spot in the league.” We will look at the result to settle for the 4th position. We must have enough heads to merge in the game and to be upstreamed.
We have to be even harder now because that moment of patting ourselves on the back for finishing fifth place in the table was there, but won’t be present anymore. We have Tottenham in the Championship League leather match with us in the lead by two games and we also need to concentrate fully on the Conference League semi-finals.
It was Emery who pointed out that the experts were saying that England doesn’t have much of a chance to get another place in the top 5 in the Champions League now. 4 out of the 5 English clubs that are now left in the UCL and UEL contests resulted in defeat, thus, a significant slump to these teams and minimizing their chances of further progression.
By the end of the day, it was evident that there had been overall problems with the organization of the workers. While they were pretty much under possession most of the time in the first half, the team took full opportunity of the time they had it.
Justine Kluivert tried his luck with a wide shot from beyond the edge of the box while Dango Ouattara was inches away from a goal, as he met a cross from left, and although the angle looked good enough for him to score he ended up hitting the post instead.
The spot kick for Bournemouth looked very clear; Cash was the wrong side so when Kerkes turned calmly into him who had no chance, it was just celebrated by our number nine, Solanke, who just managed to score his 18th league goal.
Martinez, who was between the sticks, stopped a dangerous shot from Ouattara, which seemed to have put the game wide open for Bournemouth just minutes after Villa had scored.
Enes Unal believed that he had scored for Bournemouth but the ex-Villa player, being down by two goals, did just that against Villa, and their two-goal margin was reduced to one.
The trip to the Midlands didn’t turn out awfully for the South Coast club, but they can still finish the season having new opportunities coming. Bournemouth getting close to seizing from underneath their noses a club record points in the premier league, only because of the bad run by Andoni Iraola at the beginning. Iraola was later sensed saying BBC Match of the Day that this was one of their objectives, but the task was the tough nominated schedule. Though the margin of their victory against stronger teams is very tight, they need to keep moving and stay awake all the time.
Ollie Watkins was named the player of the match with an average rating of 7.51.
Final Words
Aston Villa’s recent victories have kept their hopes alive for a top-four finish in the Premier League and secured them a spot in the Champions League. Despite a challenging schedule, including a Europa Conference League semi-final, Villa showed resilience and skill in their recent matches. Morgan Rogers’ equalizer and goals from Moussa Diaby and Leon Bailey secured a crucial win against Bournemouth. With a six-point lead over Tottenham in fifth place, Villa must remain focused to achieve their goal of a top-four finish. Bournemouth, while facing difficulties, still aims to finish the season strongly and break their club record for points in the Premier League.
