In the seconds after John McGinn gave Aston Villa the lead, the scoreboards in opposite corners malfunctioned, flickering to display a 3-0 scoreline against Bologna courtesy of a supersonic hat-trick from their captain. For a moment it was pure fantasy but Unai Emery’s team really are top of the reformed Champions League, the only side with a 100% record so far having played three matches. Nine points, three clean sheets, Real Madrid, Milan and Paris Saint-Germain are looking up the table with a touch of envy.
McGinn inadvertently scored the first directly from a free-kick before Jhon Durán, handed a rare start, added a second with his seventh goal of the season. Everybody was on cloud nine, then? Not quite. Durán’s instinctive, hooked finish to convert Morgan Rogers’s dinked cross proved his final touch and, after being replaced by Ollie Watkins, he thumped a padded seat in the home dugout and then booted the back of another chair.
