It was a fraught episode that could yet determine Aston Villa’s season. In the final minute of stoppage time, the big screens showed 94 minutes and 13 seconds when Emiliano Martínez made a magnificent save to thwart Antoine Semenyo and Matty Cash ended up crashing into the Villa net to successfully spook the Bournemouth substitute Daniel Jebbison, who headed over from a couple of yards out. Amadou Onana instantly rushed to Cash, grabbing his cheeks by way of congratulations.
While Martínez embarked on a round of high-fives with his defenders and clenched both fists overhead as if parading a trophy, Cash was still in a heap, clinging to the polypropylene Villa net after the pair combined to eke out a priceless victory in their push to qualify again for the Champions League. The Villa full-back seemed as perplexed as anyone as to how Jebbison contrived to miss.
A little more than a month ago Villa were preparing for the Parc des Princes and while they have enjoyed some memorable trips on the continent this campaign, it was hard to escape the sense that this one, in more modest surroundings in the spring Dorset sunshine, was arguably their most significant takeaway of the season yet. This win guaranteed qualification for European competition for the third successive season but it probably felt even bigger for Unai Emery given his side finished with 10 men, after Jacob Ramsey was sent off late on for picking up a cheap second yellow card. And then deep in stoppage time came Martínez’s heroics, the goalkeeper’s right thumb appearing to prevent Semenyo from side-footing in an equaliser. “We needed it, we needed it,” the Villa manager said, laughing. “Without Jacob, we had to do our biggest effort of the match.”
Ollie Watkins scored the only goal on the verge of half-time, his deft finish sufficient to earn a priceless Villa win and eclipse Gabriel Agbonlahor’s Premier League goalscoring record, this the England striker’s 75th in the top flight. “Something tells me I’m into something good,” crooned the 1,307 away supporters on loop. Villa’s big win was a damaging defeat for Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth and their European aspirations, especially with Brentford and Brighton winning before kick-off here. “Key moments matter a lot,” said the Bournemouth head coach. “It’s a great save from Martínez, a great chance for Jebbo. It would have been a great point.”
There is an argument that this was Villa’s trickiest assignment left this season, with Emery’s side taking on Tottenham and then Manchester United in their final matches, two teams transfixed on the same thing: winning the Europa League to sugarcoat their dreadful seasons. This victory hoisted Villa into sixth, above Nottingham Forest and level on points with Newcastle and Chelsea, who meet on Sunday. With Manchester City dropping points, this was a thoroughly satisfying afternoon for a Villa side without Youri Tielemans for the first time this season.
For Villa, the match-winning moment arrived with almost the final action of a flat first half. After Bournemouth cleared a Villa free-kick, Semenyo was guilty of overplaying, picking the wrong time to try to nutmeg Cash on the left flank and suddenly Villa had the chance to fashion one last attack. Deep into six minutes of stoppage time Morgan Rogers curled a delightful ball into the box and an alive Watkins read the pass, finding the far corner of the Bournemouth net with a dainty finish, the studs of his right boot enough to divert the ball past Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Until then there had been few clearcut chances. Marco Asensio struck a post with the game’s first notable effort on 43 minutes and then Arrizabalaga saved well from Boubacar Kamara and Cash. The hosts struggled to test Martínez at all until Ramsey was given a second yellow card by the referee, Stuart Attwell, for a trip on the substitute David Brooks.
Iraola suggested the incident did not merit a dismissal but Tyrone Mings’s early – seemingly inadvertent – elbow on Alex Scott did. “We’ve sent Alex for an MRI [scan] because he was really feeling it,” he said. “I think it is a very violent elbow. Tyrone Mings sees that Alex is coming and it’s a very violent one.
“The second yellow for Ramsey, I don’t think is a second yellow,” the Bournemouth head coach added.” Obviously a red card in the sixth minute [Mings] or in the 80th minute, the value is very, very different. But we cannot change this.” Bournemouth revealed on Sunday that Scott suffered a fractured jaw and will require surgery.
Regardless, Bournemouth were revitalised from the moment Ramsey sloped off the pitch. Semenyo sent an effort wide and then Martínez pawed an Evanilson header out for a corner. The biggest moment was still to come. The Villa goalkeeper got fingertips to Semenyo’s effort and then Jebbison, who spent the first half of the season on loan at Watford, where he failed to score in 13 appearances, and has not scored a league goal for almost two and a half years, got his header all wrong.
Villa held on for a huge win in their push for the top five, the full-time roar from those sun-drenched away supporters the biggest giveaway of the value of these points. “Now we can feel more or less comfortable,” Emery said. “I want to play. I don’t want holidays. I want to share with our players and the supporters the momentum we have. We are going to push other teams, but it’s not in our hands.”
