Here’s Ben Fisher’s match report from Villa Park.
Leon Bailey and Ashley Young spoke to Sky Sports.
LB: We enjoyed the game we showed a lot of team spirit, it was nice to get a win at Villa Park
AY: We knew it was going to be tough. It’s always a bit feisty with Leeds. We had to dig in,
LB: It was brilliant from the very first moment, the team were there for each other. Definitely a relief, it’s been coming.
AY: We needed to bounce back, our performances in the league have been very good. He’s been fantastic for us. [On Gnonto] It was a good battle. i was feeling my back at half-time, and I am just delighted, and Leon was superb.
LB: For us it was very important. We needed this game to get that winning feeling again.
Final score: Aston Villa 2-1 Leeds
A fine game, a fine advert for the Premier League. Leon Bailey was the matchwinner, in scoring and supplying the second goal for Buendia to score. Leeds suffer for a lack of defensive nous, and for all Wilfried’s Gnonto’s brilliance in his personal battle with Ashley Young, also excellent, Villa leave the field to more Jeff Beck and Hi Ho Silver Lining.
90+6 min: Villa doing some decent timewasting. Young taking ages over a throw-in, then Konsa heading out before Bamford fails to stay onside.
90+5 min: All types of chaos from the free-kick and Mings pumps behind. Kamara heads the corner away, and goes down heavily but smiling. Jesse Marsch looks a beaten man in his flasher’s mac on the sideline.
90+4 min: Young gets injured by sliding into Firpo and then commits a foul on Gnonto, and Leeds have a good position to take a free-kick.
90+2 min: Bamford chases a long ball down in vain, and Martinez happily lies on the ball. There was an offside flag, and Martinez takes his time, and then takes a booking, and happily enough for wasting time.
90 min: Six minutes added on, and Leeds need to get the ball back to Gnonto.
89 min: Meslier is very lucky, storming out, and then clatters Coutinho. He was lucky not to handle the ball and get a red. It’s a yellow. Leeds seem to have lost their cool since scoring.
87 min: Emi Martinez takes his time over a goal-kick. World Cup winners seem to get extra grace to do so.
85 min: Given the ball in midfield and with Meslier off his line, Coutinho goes for glory but drifts his shot over the bar.
84 min: Leeds are back in this one, and fancy it, though look vulnerable, too.
Goal! Aston Villa 2-1 Leeds (Bamford, 83)
Gnonto gets away from Young at last, and then cuts back in past Luiz, and slots in Bamford who can but slot it in. Brilliant from the young Italian, instinctive from Bamford. Game on.
Updated
81 min: Villa subs, and off go Ramsey and Buendia, and on come Coutinho and Sanson.
79 min: Villa on the attack, Kamara sets up the move and almost gets on the end, before Bailey has a followup shot. Real danger from Bailey tonight, and that’s an improvement from a player who has not quite been up to expectation at Villa.
77 min: Correction by Kari: “Rowland’s from Wolverhampton, Dexys are from Birmingham.”
I suppose the question is whether Dexys is Kevin, and Kevin is Dexys. There’s still Helen O’Hara I suppose. And a cast of other thousands in a very short time in the 80s.
76 min: Lovely from Gnonto, who performs quite a roulette on Young, only to have his shot blocked. Young and the young man has been a fine battle, really good to watch.
74 min: Jeremy Boyce: “If it’s going to be NastyLeeds’ night, they have to start channeling their inner David Gedge/Wedding Present with a touch of George Best magic....”
Gedgeo came from Middleton, and may well have been an actual Manchester United fan.
73 min: Ings should score, flicked in by Buendia, but Meslier comes across. Soon after that, Konsa has to slide across to tackle Aaronson. .
71 min: Gnonto at last gets the better of Young but the ball is cleared and Villa go away again with Ramsey and Bailey and Moreno fancies a debut goal, only to hit wide.
69 min: Ashley Young has got into Gnonto’s head, and he also played a full part in the second Leeds goal, just as he did in the first. He’s a real player’s pro, is Ashley Young, had a great, and rather unsung career.
68 min: All is not lost for Leeds, but they need a way back in quickly.
66 min: Leeds make a sub, Patrick Bamford coming on, the panic button pushed. Wober’s on, too, with Rodrigo Harrison and Struijk off. The latter could not cope with Leon Bailey.
Updated
Goal! Aston Villa 2-0 Leeds (Buendia, 64)
Villa have the ball in the net but it’s initially waved offside. Bailey is again the danger man, his shot hit with venom, and Meslier can only parry to Buendia, who nods the rebound in, and in place of celebration wags his finger to announce he was actually onside, and he was right, he was miles onside.
Updated
63 min: Kári Tulinius chooses a Wolverhampton band: “Clearly the appropriate song by a Birmingham band for this needlessly needly fixture is Dexys Midnight Runners’ ‘Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire It Doesn’t Apply’.
61 min: Brum, great music city…anyway, on with the show, and it’s quite a show. Both teams continue to play at full pelt. Tempers fraying a bit, with Luke Ayling launching a volley at Michael Oliver. Leeds can get at Villa, and Rodrigo cuts inside, having been shown the way (Peter Frampton-like) by Mings, but only hits the sidenetting.
60 min: Joe Pearson: “Any song specifically for Villa must surely be something by Black Sabbath, as Ozzy and the boys are noted Villa supporters. ‘Iron Man’ perhaps?”
Was up there earlier this season, and was treated to Paranoid and O-Ozz’s superb Crazy Train.
59 min: Russell Richardson announces himself as a head: “with Leeds being a vital nexus of both original post-punk (Scritti Politti, Gang of Four, Delta 5, Mekons... others??) and current upstarts/stars, Yard Act; and Villa (Solihull?) being famed for Swell Maps (which suburb did The Prefects/Nightingales come from? or the Au Pairs?) - perhaps our readers could spice up proceedings by shoe-horning in a few relevant song or album titles?”
58 min: Colin Stevens: “I know you’re enjoying the Villa Leeds match but the other game on the box tonight isn’t too shabby. Victor Osimhen has just scored his second to put Napoli 4-1 up against Juventus. They’ll extend their lead at the top & are looking like one of the best teams in Europe. Outside bet for the Champions League?…Sorry John – make that 5-1. Elmas has scored now.”
Wow. Napoli do look amazing, and fun.
56 min: Bailey, looking dangerous, cuts to the flank, and finds Luiz who smashes over the bar. Both sides so open. Jesse Marsch is approaching volcanic mood.
55 min: Justin Madson is back: “Well, seeing the VAR review of that offside call in the buildup in 45+2 just confuses me even further. Particularly when they do not provide the still shot with the magic line to justify the offside call. Going to listen to the brilliant Justin Kavanaugh and leave the rules to the punters. The game has been immensely enjoyable outside the two questionable decisions, so why let them ruin the experience?”
53 min: Gnonto pings one in, cutting inwards, then back out again, but gives Martinez chance to make one of those saves they say are “for TV”.
52 min: Gary Naylor gets in touch: “This brand of chaotic football is so much more fun than soulless possession in training ground triangles against a team happy to keep its shape, before 46 passes without a tackle leads to a goal stroked into the net from 10 yards out.”
Gary’s not looking forward to the Manchester derby…
Meanwhile, Alejandro Moreno comes in from the overlap to threaten, to show off his attacking qualities.
50 min: Gnonto is a marked man, with Buendia doubling up with Young to stop him.
48 min: Villa begin with impetus, but then Mings slips, and Rodrigo and Harrison make their escape, and Ashley Young deals his mate out of real trouble. Aaronson is blocked just as he goes to shoot. An observation: Aaronson does a lot of falling over.
Martinez, his self-satisfaction beaming light to the entirety of the ancient county of Warwickshire, catches the corner with ease.
46 min: We are back underway, no changes at half-time. Jesse Marsch is moaning at the ref already.
More half-time emails:
Tom Stratford: Given we have the original “Old York”, I prefer to look at it that we historically ventured west and took over a decent chunk of the eastern seaboard.Leeds’ adopted son Mateusz Klich currently working on establishing our next base camp in Washington D.C.”
Fran Burke: “Poor Gnonto is getting the stuffing kicked out of him for all of his terrific activity on the wing and in the box & is about to flip his lid — I’d say Marsch would be wise to replace him for the second half.
I’m watching this in “Jamie Carragher’s Boot Room” the football-themed portion of the Irish American Bar in Downtown Manhattan. As the Football Weekly resident music fellah, you might want to know that there’s no volume on here, just a mostly anodyne yet eclectic playlist that has featured, on this order, during the first half:
- Celebrate Good Times
- that Lisa Stansfield Been Around the World song
- My Life
- Town Called Malice
- Midnight Train to Georgia
”You could almost apply each of those to this game. Almost.”
Jeremy Adams: “I don’t understand how week in week out Martinez gets away with releasing the ball outside of the area when he’s kicking upfield. Every time he’s clearly a step outside the area before he releases the ball.”
James Hupp: “Justin Madson (37 mins) uses the most common description of VAR, but it obscures as much as it reveals. The ‘clear and obvious’ standard is real, but it is about the facts, not the referee’s judgment of those facts. If the referee tells the VAR, for example, I saw the defender grab the attacker with two hands but it wasn’t enough to award a penalty, that’s that. If the referee says he saw only one hand, the VAR can correct the error or tell him to have another look. The referee’s judgment is final, the referee’s eyes aren’t. I wish that idea was more frequently included in conversations about VAR.”
Richard Hirst: “Respect to Mary Waltz for the geolocationarily appropriate song choice. Can we find an equally appropriate Birmingham one?”
The regulars are in:
Justin Kavanagh: “Justin Madson should understand that football was invented by the English, so really, the rules are not supposed to work. They were put there, back in the (Victorian) day, to keep people in their proper place in society and to frustrate the paying punter, who should just be grateful they have the time off work to watch this nonsense. Carry on. “
Mary Waltz: “These teams do not like each other. If it kicks off in the second half I won’t be surprised. I Predict a Riot.”
Half-time: Aston Villa 1-0 Leeds
A fine advert for Our League, in that both teams are going at it full bore, and all to the good. Villa’s goal came early and Leeds have pushed hard ever since to get back into the game. They’ve been a bit lacking in cutting edge and a bit of luck, too, having been denied a couple of penalty calls and an offside. More, please. More of the good stuff, that is.
Updated
45+2 min: We close out with some aggro. Buendia and Liam Cooper go at it after the defender hurls the playmaker to the floor. Leeds push on for that equaliser but lack that final ball. Villa, for whom Konsa shows a shoulder drop to clear danger at the end, close out the half with some relief.
45+6 min: The physios will have to get through some work at half-time, it would seem. Both teams have asked no quarter.
45+4 min: Aaronson looks winded, though there’s been plenty of knocks to go around. There’s been some full-blooded stuff played out there.
45+2 min: Leeds have the ball in the net! But are denied. Gnonto on the other flank, cuts in, the ball falls to Rodrigo, who from the ground on his second attempt knocks in, but there’s an offside and the VAR gods will not intervene to rule it in.
45 min: Leeds go close. Ayling’s ball is a beauty, Harrison chases it in, but then Martinez smothers it.
Seven minutes have been added on to this half.
Updated
44 min: Gnonto and Ashley Young, the latter 18 years older than the former has been quite a contest. Full of fire, too. Jesse Marsch is asking the fourth official to protect his young star who’s been on the end of a couple of reducers though the Italian is arguing his case well, too.
42 min: Alejandro Moreno, an instant hero. Rodrigo is through, rounds Emi Martinez, and then Moreno gets in the way. Fine, last-gasp defending. That will help him settle in.
Updated
41 min: Leeds lack a bit of cutting edge. Feels like they have done most of the attacking while conceding a goal, and looking prone to another.
39 min: Good stuff, both teams kicking lumps out of each other, bit of needle. Aaaronon took a whack, but they’re all flying in. Men, at it, as a great sage had it.
38 min: Gnonto and Aaronson look Leeds’ best chances of a goal, and the latter looked to have been hauled down by Tyrone Mings, who cleaned him out in the manner of a rugby union ruck. It appears Michael Oliver wants to let this one flow, as they say. Howard Webb’s advice will be ringing in his ears, no doubt.
37 min: Richard Hirst: “Matt Burtz is welcome to join the insurgency in SW6, with Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson following in the footsteps of such legends as Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey.”
Justin Madson is feeling annoyed: “Hi John, I feel like the more I watch football, the less I understand how the rules work. Two hands pulling on a player running by you is not a foul because it would result in a penalty? VAR has not helped at all - the “clear and obvious error to overturn” rule implies there is a way to review these in a fully objective manner when generally the replay is employed to provide clarity when things are unclear. I understand wanting to protect the referees on the field, but the way they have deployed VAR to essentially rubber stamp the decision on the field feels self-defeating. As much as I hate players surrounding the ref after every whistle, it seems a natural result when the decisions taken are as seemingly arbitrary as they have been.”
35 min: The TV commentators mention Buendia, who I had not realised was on the field. So far, he’s had about as much impact as Philippe Coutinho. Ramsey meanwhile, has to come across to clear the danger when Aaronson scampers down the left. The resultant corner is cleared.
33 min: Robin Koch is booked for smashing over Jacob Ramsey. Leeds’ defenders have been a little edgy here.
32 min: Watkins goes down the Villa Park tunnel, which is down the corner of the field. Big chance for Ings, who has rarely convinced as a Villa player.
31 min: Matt Burtz gets in touch: “Two Americans in the starting eleven for Leeds, with a fellow American on the touchline? Our slow but steady takeover of Yorkshire is falling into place!”
Off goes Watkins, on comes Ings.
30 min: Watkins goes down in surrender to his ankle injury and Danny Ings is imminent.
28 min: Watkins is still feeling that injury after a sprint. Might he have done better than chase down the ball from a Leon Bailey pass that was going begging. Again, Ashley Young had started the move. Watkins was hesitant, and Leeds looked there for the taking.
26 min: Harrison bends that free-kick beyond everyone. Jesse Marsch and Patrick Bamford are in discussion. The striker might have read that one better than his teammates, who utterly failed to read it.
24 min: Louis van Gaal’s legacy – and that of Wout Weghirst and Teun Koopmeiners – lives on. Meanwhile, Alex Moreno is having a tough introduction, penalised for a foul on Luke Ayling. Another free-kick to Leeds.
22 min: Gnonto, on the burst, is the latest to feel a bump and bruise as he’s fouled. There’s a chance for one of Harrison and Aaronson to swing one in, but instead they try a clever one – a Wout Weghorst – and as the ball goes through, does Douglas Luiz pull back Rodrigo. They demand a penalty. They don’t get one.
Updated
20 min: Watkins is the latest Villa player to go down, and this could be a worry for Villa. Looks like an ankle problem. It took a twist and looked a bit nasty.
18 min: Joe Pearson gets in touch: “Jeff Beck was such a talent. The most inventive soloist this side of Frank Zappa. And he could play with so much emotion. Any style you like. He will be missed by this particular old guy. With bonus Tal Wilkenfeld bass solo.”
Leeds meanwhile, force another corner and again almost get caught out by a Villa counter. This time, they get back in sufficient numbers.
16 min: Koch is penalised for leaning all over Ollie Watkins, and Villa can launch the ball into the Leeds box, but instead choose to pass the ball. They are noticeably less direct than under Steven Gerrard.
14 min: Aaronson tries to escape down the left but Ashley Young comes across to tackle. The Leeds fans are full voice for the moment. their team is doing much of the attacking but does look vulnerable on the counter. There’s an appeal for handball after it hits Konsa, but nothing doing.
12 min: The game has been stopped for quite a while and it’s taking a while to finds its tempo.
10 min: Digne leaves the field in agony, and the physios have to hold his arm up as he leaves. Begs the question what happens when he has to take it back down. Moreno is on, the 29-year-old having just arrived from Real Betis.
Updated
8 min: This is a long delay for Digne, who has barely moved, and he got a knee in the face for his troubles as he fell to his arm. Moreno is being put through his set piece duties on the sidelines.
6 min: Lucas Digne goes down, holding his shoulder. Looks in pain. Will Alex Moreno appear quicker than we expected?
4 min: Leeds could have scored from that corner had Roca made proper contact and yet 17 seconds later, Villa scored. Struijk, like against Stevenage, was caught napping. Unai Emery is getting a tune from Leon Bailey, and it was Ashley Young’s canniness that set off that counter.
Goal! Aston Villa 1-0 Leeds (Bailey, 3)
Early Leeds corner, and it causes trouble, only for Villa to counter at speed, and then Leon Bailey gets on the ball. He carves inward from Kamara’s pass, and on his left foot, he thwacks home.
Updated
1 min: And away we go…..
Should you be so interested, the Aston Villa formation is 4-4-2, the Leeds formation is 4-2-3-1. Jesse Marsch and Unai Emery share a warm handshake as Michael Oliver carries out the coin toss. They switch ends, and Villa will attack the mighty Holte End in the first half. The Villa fans not amused by this. It seems their team chose to do this. Leeds kick off, and mount a quick attack through Jack Harrison with Tyrone Mings sliding in.
Hi Ho Silver Lining is pumping out at Villa Park, with extra poignancy added by this week’s loss of Jeff Beck, the singer who hated his own most famous song as he sang on it. Rod Stewart on backing vocals, John Paul Jones on bass, and a huge hit.
The Premier League table suggests Leeds are within reach of both comfort and worry.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 17 | 26 | 44 |
| 2 | Man City | 17 | 29 | 39 |
| 3 | Newcastle | 18 | 21 | 35 |
| 4 | Man Utd | 17 | 7 | 35 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 18 | 12 | 33 |
| 6 | Fulham | 19 | 4 | 31 |
| 7 | Liverpool | 17 | 12 | 28 |
| 8 | Brighton | 17 | 7 | 27 |
| 9 | Brentford | 18 | 2 | 26 |
| 10 | Chelsea | 18 | 0 | 25 |
| 11 | Aston Villa | 18 | -6 | 22 |
| 12 | Crystal Palace | 17 | -8 | 22 |
| 13 | Leicester | 18 | -5 | 17 |
| 14 | Leeds | 17 | -6 | 17 |
| 15 | Nottm Forest | 18 | -21 | 17 |
| 16 | AFC Bournemouth | 18 | -21 | 16 |
| 17 | West Ham | 18 | -9 | 15 |
| 18 | Everton | 18 | -10 | 15 |
| 19 | Wolverhampton | 18 | -16 | 14 |
| 20 | Southampton | 18 | -18 | 12 |
Unai Emery spoke to Sky Sports, mostly about transfer business.
We have more players with the possibility to leave and if we can do it we can add more players. We want to improve and have better balance in the squad with different profiles.
We know him [Moreno]; he was a very important player in La Liga. I wanted to sign a different profile of player to Augustinsson, who is on loan from Sevilla. We wanted to be more offensive. We were thinking about different players, but Moreno is the player we had in focus.
The idea is for Augustinsson is to leave, to get another option to play.
Jesse Marsch spoke to Sky Sports, and at length.
Both matches [Newcastle and West Ham] were a tale of two halves. We are trying to put complete performances together and continue to defend better. But in general I think it has been solid, but we know we can get better and that will be the priority tonight.
We want to be very good defensively. We want to press well and be very aggressive without the ball. With the ball I want to see us be a little bit more brave and vertical and not always just play wide and combinations with our full-backs. That will help us also with our counter-pressing. But I still think the key will be what we can do defensively and turning those moments in counter-attacking transitions.
It has been hard having Patrick Bamford out, he’s missed playing football. He has looked lively in training in the last 10 days. That has been my emphasis with him: stopping worrying about missing chances and whether you’re starting or coming off the bench, just enjoy your football and I think we can see the best of him.
From our ten things feature ahead of the Premier League, of which this is the first fixture, Barry Glendenning wrote this.
Coutinho hastens towards Villa exit
Handed his first start under Unai Emery against Stevenage last weekend, Philippe Coutinho played badly, got hooked after 66 minutes and was forced to look on from the bench as Aston Villa were embarrassed by their visitors from League Two. While he is unlikely to start against Leeds this weekend, just over a year after his arrival, his future at Villa seems uncertain at best. In late December, the Brazilian took to social media to rage against what he described as “lies” suggesting he was unhappy at Villa and had asked to leave in January. Given how little he has delivered for the club in the past 12 months, despite a stunning debut against Manchester United, it is difficult to imagine too many fans mourning his departure and he is fast running out of chances to impress. If he really does want to stay at Villa Park, now would be a good time to prove it with on-field actions rather than Instagram tantrums. Barry Glendenning
What do those teams mean? Philippe Coutinho is again benched, while John McGinn is out for Villa, whose new signing Alex Moreno is alongside Coutinho on that bench. No Matty Cash either, but nine changes from the Shame of Stevenage.
Maximilian Wöber, like Moreno, is a new signing on the bench, amid eight changes from Cardiff, with Pascal Struijk keeping his place despite not having the most convincing game in Cardiff. Patrick Bamford is on the bench for the first time since October.
The teams
Aston Villa: Martinez, A Young, Digne, Konsa, Mings, Luiz, Ramsey, Kamara, Buendia, Bailey, Watkins. Subs: Olsen, Sanson, Ings, Moreno, Chambers, Nakamba, Bednarek, Coutinho, K Young.
Leeds: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Struijk, Cooper, Roca, Adams, Aaronson, Harrison, Rodrigo, Gnonto. Subs: Robles, Firpo, Bamford, Llorente, Perkins, Kristensen, Gelhardt, Wober, Greenwood.
Preamble
It was all going so well for Unai Emery – just about - and then came Stevenage. Aston Villa were comfortably in mid-table and there was, er, bandwidth for a challenge for the FA Cup. As it turned out, Hertfordshire’s finest prevailed and the last time the Villa won an FA Cup tie was under the management of the notorious Remi Garde. So, on with the Premier League and this season’s consolidation project and the visit of Leeds, who narrowly escaped similar Cup embarrassment at the hands of Cardiff.
Leeds are five points behind Villa in the table, and have yet to win a post-World Cup match, making it over two months since Jesse Marsch was able to celebrate a win. Two points above the drop zone, it’s not quite must-win for Leeds, but they will hope to channel the spirit of former manager Steve Evans, and put one over the Villa.
Kick-off is at 8pm, join me.
