Aston Villa hang on for vital win over Leeds in the Premier League
On the back of being involved in a league-high 13 goals in the opening quarter-hour of their matches this season, Leon Bailey exquisitely continued that trend with less than three minutes on the clock at Villa Park.
Capitalising on a Leeds’ corner, the former Bayer Leverkusen winger made up for his late miss against fierce local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers nine days ago by firing a stunning strike past Illan Meslier.
However, Aston Villa's celebrations were muted not long after when new signing Alex Moreno was handed his Villa Park bow earlier than expected following Lucas Digne’s departure after the France international landed awkwardly on his shoulder.
Hoping to build upon their impressive away head-to-head league record, following only one defeat across their last six expeditions to Birmingham, Leeds initially struggled to cause a significant threat to Emiliano Martinez’s goal.
Nonetheless, after making steady improvements throughout the first half, Jesse Marsch’s side were unlucky not to head into the interval on level terms as Moreno instinctively got back to clear Rodrigo’s goal-bound strike.
Hoping to improve the joint-worst away record in the division following only one victory in eight matches, Leeds continued where they left off as only the outstretched fingertips of Martinez denied Wilfried Gnonto.
After losing six of their previous nine top-flight matches played on a Friday night, Villa were indebted to the involvement of the footballing gods when VAR advised Michael Oliver to allow Emi Buendia’s close-range header after the man in the middle had initially adjudged the Argentine to have been offside.
With the Villans on course for the three points, second-half substitute Patrick Bamford halved the deficit from close-range in the 83rd minute to make Unai Emery’s side sweat for the final seven minutes.
However, Villa valiantly kept their cool to move level on points with 10th, separated by goal difference alone.
Meanwhile, Leeds remain only two points above the heavily-congested relegation zone having failed to register a top-flight victory since beating Bournemouth in early November.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ashley Young (Aston Villa)