Aston Villa 0-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
by Gene Sylvester
at Villa Park

UNAI EMERY and his Aston Villa team returned to Premier League duty on Saturday after a thrilling night at Villa Park in midweek which saw them beat Celtic and confirm their place in the top eight of the Champions League group phase, but a hungry Wolves team were waiting for them at Molineux Stadium to bring them back down to Earth with a thud.

Goals from Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Matheus Cunha gave the home side a much deserved 2-0 victory against their more illustrious West Midlands neighbours, and in doing so, elevated the Wanderers out of the bottom three following Leicester City’s defeat at Goodison Park earlier in the day.

Vitor Pereira’s men went ahead in the 12th minute after a sweeping move from the left side of the pitch to the right culminated in the impressive Pablo Sarabia threading a sumptuous ball through for man of the match Jean-Ricner Bellegarde to run onto.

The French midfielder’s run on the blind side of makeshift central defender Boubacar Kamara was timed to perfection allowing him to take a touch and fire a wicked low shot at Emi Martinez goal from 10 yards out, beating the villa keeper at his near post.

The away side, seemingly suffering a hangover from their midweek exertions in Europe, could not get going and Unai Emery eluded to this fact during the post-match press conference.

“We are increasing our demand to be consistent in Premier League and Champions League which is our challenge,” stated the Villa manager.

“We do not have the power that Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester City have.”

The home side could have been 4-0 to the good had they been more clinical with the opportunities that they had crafted out in the remainder of the first half, but a combination of poor finishing and heroics from Emi Martinez had kept Villa in the contest at half-time.

Emery made wholesale changes during the break with four players being replaced in an attempt to get his troops going, and the changes resulted in the Villains looking much more threatening in attack, despite losing Ollie Watkins to injury during the half-time break.

One of the substitutes, and new arrival Donyell Malen, thought that he had scored an equaliser for the away side in the 53rd minute tapping home from a John McGinn low cross into the six-yard box.

However on review, VAR ruled that Morgan Rogers, in an offside position, had impeded Nelson Semedo’s attempt to track McGinn’s run and prevent the cross from coming in and the goal was disallowed.

The game as a contest was finally put to bed when Wolves were able to break out from a period of sustained pressure from the away side in search of an equaliser.

Villa midfielder Rogers was dispossessed, believing that he was fouled in the process, and a long ball forward saw Cunha once again beat Konsa too the ball in behind.

Konsa did manage to shepherd the Wolves striker wide, but a wonderful feint wrong footed the England man, creating a gap for Cunha to strike at goal and beyond Martinez’s dive into the far corner of the net.

Wolves manager Pereira was delighted with his team’s performance.

“In my opinion we played a very good game tactically, doing what we should do in the first period and I think we deserved the three points.

“Today we felt the energy of the supporters and they gave us the extra energy that we needed to win against Aston Villa.”