Aston Villa qualified for the Europa Conference League as they produced one of the narrow football results of the weekend in the Premier League. Villa, who last competed in Europe during the 2010–11 season when they were eliminated by Rapid Vienna in the Europa League play-off round, surpassed Tottenham for seventh position with the victory. Unai Emery’s team took the lead thanks to Douglas Luiz’s caressed shot, and Ollie Watkins doubled the lead after Deniz Undav had been denied an equalizer following a VAR review. Undav did manage to score his third goal in five games, thanks to another VAR intervention, but the Seagulls’ record season came to an end in a loss.
From the beginning, Villa was aware that they were in charge of their fate. No matter what occurred elsewhere, a win over Brighton would guarantee European football, with Tottenham one point behind and Brentford two. They started working right away. Within five minutes, Leon Bailey swivelled and hit the crossbar, and within ten, Luiz scored following a superb ball from Jacob Ramsey to put them in ahead. When Julio Enciso’s lovely through pass was tucked beyond Emi Martinez by Undav, Brighton felt they had equalized. However, VAR determined that the former had strayed slightly offside throughout the buildup, and Villa increased their advantage when Watkins rolled home.
In the midst of a chaotic first half, Undav scored again after allowing a cross go over his head. Just when it appeared that he may experience déjà vu due to a possible offside in the build-up, VAR intervened to award the goal. Brighton made a strong start to the second half, although Villa might have been eliminated soon after if Ramsey had maintained his connection on Bailey’s cross that came from within the six-yard box. Alexis Mac Allister gathered a Tyrone Mings header and fired wide.
Prior to Ramsey’s last-minute denial by Jason Steele, Villa pushed to allay any lingering concerns about losing the lead with a free-kick from Lucas Digne that sailed just wide of the near post. After the half, though, they only had to stop three efforts from Brighton, and with the support of a joyous crowd, Villa finished a wild season with their best finish in 13 years and a return to European contention.
Aston Villa’s seventh-place performance in the Premier League was their best since finishing sixth in 2009–2010, and their first in European play since 2010–11 will come in the upcoming season. The previous most number of victories in a Premier League season by an Aston Villa team was 21 in 1992–1993 (18 victories). In fact, this is the first time since February 1993 that they have won seven straight Premier League games at Villa Park.
Aston Villa has been the opponent for Brighton’s last four Premier League losses, and they have also lost four of their previous six tournament championship games (W2). Ollie Watkins scored his 15th Premier League goal of the season, becoming the first Aston Villa player since Christian Benteke in 2012–13 (19) to reach that mark in a single league season.
Rarely has the Premier League had a season with such stark contrasts in fortunes, but Unai Emery is solely to blame for that. With Villarreal’s Europa League victory in 2021, the harsh criticism of his struggles at Arsenal was set aside, but there was still no assurance that his second stint in English football would be more successful than his first. It took little time to imply that it may. Emery set out to drastically improve his English in the nearly three years after he had left the Premier League, but it is his on-field accomplishments that have drawn the most attention since he came to Villa Park.
If the season had begun that day, Villa would be four points behind second place in the standings, wedged between Manchester United and Newcastle, and just one goal difference away from a Champions League position. The fact that the team he inherited had just been destroyed 4-0 at Newcastle and had only won three of their first 13 games in the midst of an increasingly poisonous environment would be impressive enough in and of itself, but you may as well be talking about two different clubs given those facts.
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