Aston Villa 2-1 Leicester City: Heroes, villains & player ratings as Villa get back to winning ways

Aston Villa made it three wins out of four under Steven Gerrard as they saw off west midlands rivals Leicester City 2-1 at Villa Park.

Harvey Barnes gave the visitors the lead but a brace from centre-back Ezri Konsa saw the claret & blue through to an impressive victory.

Aston Villa started slow and were punished after a mixture of sloppy defending and a bit of luck allowed Patson Daka to find Barnes with a through-ball and the young midfielder finished superbly into Emi Martinez’s far corner.

But the visitors were ahead for just three minutes. Emi Buendia thought he had scored his first goal for Villa when he headed into the bottom corner but Konsa was adjudged to have got the last touch. Either way, it was 1-1.

The claret and blue thought they had taken the lead right on half-time. Jacob Ramsey pounced on a Kasper Schmeichel error to fire home but the keeper - with a palm on the ball - was adjudged to have been in control of the situation and it was ruled out for a foul.

Gerrard’s men did take the lead right after the break though. Konsa rising highest from a John McGinn corner to head past Schmeichel at his near post and there was no ruling that one out.

Martinez did make one big save in the final 15 minutes to deny Barnes his second of the game but Villa saw the game out well and picked up a well deserved three points.

That’s nine out of 12 for Gerrard since his arrival at Villa Park.

Heroes

• Ezri Konsa

Two goals for the centre-back who seems to be improving game by game under Steven Gerrard.

He spent a lot of time in and out of the side in an unsettled back line under the previous manager but now he’s firmly cementing himself as one of the first names on the team-sheet.

Big hero for all those that have him in their Fantasy Premier League team this weekend, too.

• Emi Buendia

He’s getting better and better every time he puts on a Villa shirt and his last two appearances in particular have been very solid.

The winger was unfortunate to have a goal taken away from him by the toe of his teammate but at least he got the assist. The goal will come.

Villains

• Michael Oliver

The decision to disallow Jacob Ramsey’s strike in first half stoppage time is one of the worst you’ll see and there’s no wonder VAR gets a bad name when it’s used for instances like this.

It’s fair to say that there is some grey area around the rule of what is and isn’t considered a foul on a goalkeeper but to barely have one hand on the ball - with it under no control whatsoever - common sense should surely prevail?

• Kasper Schmeichel

Without his reaction to the non-goal, there may have never been a check.

Ramsey didn’t touch him with his strike but as soon as the Danish keeper saw the net ripple, he went down in “pain.”

Ultimately, though, it didn’t matter and the last laugh went to Villa.

Player ratings

Aston Villa (4-3-3): Martinez 8; Cash 7.5, Konsa 8.5*, Mings 7, Young 7; McGinn 7, Nakamba 8, Luiz 7 (77’ Sanson N/A); Ramsey 7 (84’ Tuanzebe N/A), Watkins 6, Buendia 7.5 (77’ Chukwuemeka N/A)

Leicester City (4-2-3-1): Schmeichel 6.5; Castagne 6, Evans 6, Soyuncu 6, Thomas 6; Dewsbury-Hall 6, Ndidi 6; Lookman 5 (65’ Vardy 6), Maddison 5, Barnes 8*; Daka 6.5 (77’ Perez N/A)

Next up

It’s a big one for Villa and Steven Gerrard up next on Saturday December 11. The new boss makes his return to Anfield for the first time as a manager and Liverpool fan or not, he’ll be wanting those three points more than ever.

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