Aston Villa boosted their chances of Champions League football next season by winning 1-0 at Bournemouth thanks to Ollie Watkins’ record-breaking first-half winner.
The win for Villa moves them into sixth place – above Nottingham Forest – and level on points with Newcastle and Chelsea, who face each other on Sunday.
In truth, it was a classic Unai Emery performance from the visitors, with Villa shutting off Bournemouth’s attacking agenda by creating a stop-start game. Villa then hit their own all-out attack style before half-time.
Marco Asensio hit the post before Kepa Arrizabalaga had to keep out Boubacar Kamara and Matty Cash with a double save – but Villa eventually took a lead into half-time as Watkins turned in Morgan Rogers’ cross.
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Ollie Watkins scores to put Villa ahead against Bournemouth
The goal survived a VAR check for offside as Watkins became Villa’s all-time highest Premier League goalscorer with 75 strikes.
Bournemouth tried to shake off Villa’s shackles by bringing Justin Kluivert on at half-time – but it did no good.
As Villa continued to shut off the hosts from open play, Bournemouth turned to their favoured weapon of set pieces. But Villa have their own machine from dead balls – they keep the best defensive record from set-pieces, conceding just two goals from them all season.
Even Jacob Ramsey’s red card for two bookings changed little. Antoine Semenyo, Evanilson and Illia Zabarnyi had late chances – but the former fired wide, while the other two could only fire straight at Emiliano Martinez.
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Aston Villa are reduced to 10 players as Jacob Ramsey is shown a second yellow card
There was one heart-in-mouth moment when Semenyo struck from close range, only for Martinez to parry the first shot, with Cash then denying Daniel Jebbison with a clearance off the line. But Villa deserved their clean sheet.
The Cherries registered an expected-goals (xG) tally of 0.8 – their second-lowest of the season. And the lowest? The return league game against Villa in October.
The result is a major blow to Bournemouth’s own European hopes as wins for Brentford and Brighton earlier in the day mean they sit in 10th place and two points behind their rivals.
Eighth spot could be enough for Conference League football and Bournemouth are running out of time to claim it.
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Aston Villa keep their lead as Emiliano Martinez pulls off a stunning save in stoppage time.
More to follow.