Aston Villa player ratings gallery vs Bournemouth: Two score 9/10 and five get 8s in 3-0 win

Aston Villa soared into the top half of the Premier League with a dominant and stylish 3-0 victory over AFC Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon, making it three wins out of four to round things off before the international break. The Cherries offered a threat on the counter but were largely kept at bay by The Villans as they charged on with a clinical attacking performance.

The hosts were very much in the ascendency from the off as Bournemouth were restricted to their own half for the most part. Starting from defence and progressing well up the field through the likes of Douglas Luiz and Emiliano Buendia, the Lions put on plenty of pressure before earning a deserved early lead in the seventh minute. Ollie Watkins’ 20-yard shot was deflected through to Leon Bailey at the far post and the Jamaican picked it up, turned outside and cut back a lovely low cross for Luiz. The midfielder was waiting unmarked in the six-yard area and simply couldn’t miss as Villa were rewarded for their bright start.

The Lions controlled proceedings following their goal but were made well aware of Bournemouth’s threat on the counter attack midway through the first period, as Dominic Solanke found some space on the left flank. The forward was allowed to cut onto his favoured right foot far too easily by Ezri Konsa and struck with power to very nearly catch out Emi Martinez, as the ball was fumbled behind for a corner. The Villans were able to defend that without trouble and soon after had a counter of their own. Watkins had a delightful opportunity to hand the hosts a two-goal advantage as Buendia’s threaded through ball found the striker, but his attempted dink was easily smothered by Neto.

Yet another huge opportunity came in the 39th minute from a clever set-piece routine as Luiz took a short corner to John McGinn and he cut it back to Jacob Ramsey on the edge of the area. The young midfielder struck at goal but his shot was deflected and it went agonisingly over the bar. Following a replay, it appeared Bournemouth defender Jack Stephens handled the ball to stop it from reaching the back of the net, prompting a VAR check. Somehow, however, the video assistant officials deemed it not to be an obvious error, even though Stephens effectively pulled off a save a goalkeeper would be proud of. Supporters won’t be happy when they see that one back, that’s for certain. Rather ironically, the rain absolutely thrashed it down just before half time, further putting a downer on that decision.

It was a quiet start to the second 45, with the occasional burst forward from either side but mainly back and forth with possession changing hands. The first opportunity came just shy of the hour mark as Luiz very nearly had a second as his close-range header forced Neto into a save. An even better stop was soon to come at the other end, though, as Martinez pulled off a world-class dive to deny Philip Billing’s free-kick. The Bournemouth midfielder did brilliantly to get enough dip on his shot considering how close to the edge of the area he was, but Martinez did even better to get across and clutch it away from the top corner. You can see why he won FIFA’s The Best award.

The threat of the visitors’ counter increased even more in the second half as Solanke made some terrific runs in behind. One of note caused great concern as Cherries substitute Hamed Traore perfectly executed a through ball to the 25-year-old, but he took too long to get a shot off, allowing Tyrone Mings to get back and made a brilliant sliding challenge. It was Villa who got the second goal of the game with around a dozen minutes to go, though, as Ramsey, who had looked really bright all game, took a Watkins nod down into this stride, dribbled past Stephens and slotted the ball home off the trailing leg of Neto. The home fans really upped the ante as that went in, with chants of ‘he’s one of our own’ echoing around Villa Park.

Watkins very nearly had a goal of his own just minutes later as McGinn took a free-kick quickly, completely catching Bournemouth out. The forward ran onto the Scotsman’s well-weighted pass and fired the ball with fierce power but Neto got a strong hand to it. Ezri Konsa then thought he’d scored as he bundled it off the line from a Mings lay-off, but VAR stepped in to correctly disallow the goal as the ball had gone out of play. Mings then had a delightful chance of his own as a cut-back found him around 1-0 yards from goal but he somehow hit it straight at Neto. He had so much of the net to aim at but was unable to convert for a Villa third.

The hosts did then stretch their lead to 3-0, though, rounding off a crazy few minutes. Luiz’s corner was headed on by Mings and Buendia was there to nod it home. The Argentine left the field straight after his goal to a huge round of applause. That’s now three wins out of four for Emery’s men as they finally swap 11th place for 10th, going ahead of Chelsea, who play late Here are our player ratings from the game.