Aston Villa Rally To Put Leeds In Trouble With Morgan Rogers Double

Five defeats successful six and nan worry is opening to show for Leeds. For nan 2nd crippled successful a statement they took an early lead done Lukas Nmecha but ended up pinch nothing, Morgan Rogers producing a brace of singular finishes to assistance Aston Villa into nan Champions League qualification slots. Leeds stay successful nan relegation zone.

Villa began nan play apparently still emotion nan hangover from nan conclusion astatine Old Trafford connected nan last play of nan past run that cost them Champions League football. But having grounded to triumph immoderate of their first six games, they person won 9 of their past 11 successful each competitions, nan extent of their squad opening to tell. Donyell Malen began connected nan chair and, while he whitethorn not person scored successful his 3rd successive game, his presence astatine half-time shifted nan momentum of nan crippled arsenic Villa became only nan 2nd distant broadside successful 26 to triumph successful nan convention astatine Elland Road.

When Southampton mislaid astatine Tottenham past play to corroborate their relegation past April, their head Ivan Juric, weary and apparently beyond caring astir negotiated niceties, said that he had expected his broadside to beryllium technically and tactically inferior to different Premier League opponents but had been amazed by really physically inferior they had been. The Premier League is simply a measurement up from nan Championship successful each way.

The promoted sides look to person taken that connection connected board. One of nan reasons that, arsenic a trio, they person started nan play truthful encouragingly is that they person each reinforced pinch physically imposing players. For three-quarters of nan first half connected Sunday, Villa struggled to unrecorded pinch Leeds’s aggression. Had Leeds’s ferocity been allied to somewhat much finesse aliases guile, they could person efficaciously had nan crippled won earlier Villa astatine past began to settee successful nan last minutes earlier nan break.

As it was, their main threat was group plays, peculiarly those delivered by nan correct footwear of Sean Longstaff. It was his free-kick that brought nan opener aft 8 minutes. The extremity was ugly, and Villa protested, but Emi Martínez was acold excessively easy distracted arsenic Nmecha challenged him, allowing Anton Stach to divert nan shot goalwards pinch his back. Ezri Konsa’s hack disconnected nan statement past deed Nmecha and rebounded complete nan line.

Lukas Nmecha scores successful nan eighth infinitesimal to springiness Leeds an early lead against Aston Villa. Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

Stach paid for his intervention, banging his caput connected nan crushed arsenic he landed which led to him being removed a fewer minutes later. Martínez whitethorn person been astatine responsibility for nan opener, but he did get down sharply to support retired a Brendan Aaronson snapshot aft a area had been half cleared. He made different good prevention precocious connected to support retired a Pascal Struijk header for different free-kick.

The problem is sustaining that level of intensity. Leeds visibly tired towards nan extremity of nan first half and struggled to prime it up successful nan second, erstwhile Nmecha was near acold much isolated than he had been successful nan first, nan midfield nary longer capable to get guardant to support him. That successful move allowed Villa much of nan shot and, nether little pressure, they began to usage it alternatively better. Rogers and Ollie Watkins had hardly been progressive until nan 40th infinitesimal but offered a hint of threat earlier half-time, Watkins whipping a curling effort conscionable wide. It was not enough, though, to person Unai Emery that he did not request to make changes and brought connected nan Dutch duo of Malen and Ian Maatsen astatine half-time.

Within 2 minutes of nan restart, nan alteration had paid off, Malen uncovering abstraction successful nan correct broadside of nan punishment area, taking a cutback from Lucas Digne and drilling complete a debased transverse than Rogers converted pinch a deft flick. His second, 15 minutes from time, was moreover better, a unusual dipping free-kick from nan separator of nan container whose startlingly crisp parabola confounded Lucas Perri arsenic it sewage up and down complete nan wall. He ran consecutive to nan Villa set-piece coach Austin MacPhee to celebrate.

Leeds seemed to person equalised almost immediately, only for replays to show that Dan James’s cross-shot had been diverted successful by nan near manus of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. They applied unit aft that, but that incapacity to create chances from unfastened play costs them. With Manchester City and Chelsea adjacent up, successful nan short word astatine slightest nan worry is only apt to get worse.