Aston Villa 3 Brentford 1: Unai Emery avoids breaking unwanted record as England stars combine to steam-roll Bees
UNAI EMERY’S Villa avoided a Christmas crisis by steam-rollering Brentford to halt their eight-match winless streak.
Emery had never gone nine games without a win in more than 1,000 games as a boss.
Aston Villa bounced back from their poor run of form[/caption]
Morgan Rogers broke the deadlock with a great strike into the top-right corner[/caption]
Ollie Watkins converted a penalty[/caption]
But by half-time he knew his horror run had come to an end and he had three very welcome points in the bag as the Bees buckled.
Brentford might be brilliant at home where they have collected 19 of their 20 points this season.
But Thomas Frank‘s boys get flattened on the road more often than a bunch of suicidal hedgehogs!
They trailed 3-0 at the break as Villa ran riot to get their stuttering season back on track.
Blonde bombshell Morgan Rogers – sporting a nifty new platinum look – struck gold midway through the first-half with a stunning opener.
The England midfielder accepted Boubacar Kamara’s delivery and drove forward, exchanging passes with Ollie Watkins, before curling a beauty beyond Mark Flekken from the edge of the box.
It was a tasty starter and Villa’s appetite had clearly returned as they feasted on Brentford’s dodgy defence.
Ollie Watkins was a constant menace and terrorised the Bees throughout.
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Mikkel Damsgaard scored Brentford’s only goal[/caption]
Just before the half hour he sprinted onto Leon Bailey‘s through ball and got ahead of Ethan Pinnock whose knee clipped the striker’s heel to send him sprawling.
Referee Lewis Smith gave himself a moment to think and then pointed to the spot and VAR agreed with his decision.
Watkins dusted himself down to squeeze his spot-kick home and, although Flekken got a glove to the ball, he couldn’t prevent Ollie scoring for the fifth game on the spin against his old club.
Matty Cash piled on the misery with a third as he pounced on Pinnock’s glancing header to volley sweetly beyond Flekken.
Brentford rightly claimed Watkins was in an offside position and interfered with play by forcing Pinnock to stretch as he attempted to clear.
But VAR Nick Hopton agreed with the ref’s on field decision to complete a miserable first half for Frank’s side.
Villa almost added to their lead when Flekken punched a Youri Tielemans corner high into the air – then had to frantically punch out his own punch as the ball threatened to creep over the line.
However he redeemed himself with a brilliant diving save to keep out a Watkins header.
Brentford restored some pride when Mikkel Damsgaard pounced on a Matty Cash half-clearance and cut inside Kamara before lashing the ball high into the roof of Emi Martinez‘s net.
But despite the Bees throwing men forward, this was Villa’s night.
Matty Cash made it three[/caption]
