Aston Villa 2 Leicester 1: Leon Bailey scores late winner as Unai Emery’s hosts labour to win over struggling Foxes
FOR 76 minutes Unai Emery watched Leon Bailey suffer.
But while every Villa fan prayed for him to hook his struggling winger, the Spaniard held his nerve.
Then Emery showed why he is paid the big bucks as he made a double substitution and sent Ian Maatsen and Emi Buendia on for Lucas Digne and Ross Barkley.
Villa fans were scratching their heads at why he hadn’t ended Bailey’s miserable afternoon there and then.
But 60 seconds later they discovered why.
Maatsen pounced on James Justin’s pass out of defence and worked a one-two with Jacob Ramsey, then delivered a low ball into the box.
And there was Bailey waiting to slam the ball beyond Jakub Stolarczyk to open his account for the season and justify his gaffer’s faith in him.
Prior to the match, Emery had called on John McGinn and Bailey to find an end product to their game.
Neither had managed to score a Premier League goal all season and with Villa deprived of seven-goal Jhon Duran and six-goal Morgan Rogers through suspension, Villa were deprived of 50 per cent of their scoring power this season.
Emery needed someone to step up to the plate and McGinn fell by the wayside within 20 minutes when he hobbled off with a hamstring injury.
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That left much of the onus on Ollie Watkins’ broad shoulders – the problem was he was relying on Bailey to provide him with the service he needed – and the little Jamaican was having a stinker.
Leicester’s Luke Thomas was all over Bailey like a rash in the first half and the winger couldn’t find his range as he was hustled out of his stride.
As the moans and groans grew, Bailey’s confidence seemed to sink – until Villa needed him most.
Then he pounced to earn Emery’s men three crucial points and make it ten games without defeat at their Villa Park fortress.
It was hard not to feel a pang of sympathy for the Foxes, who came for a point and looked as though they had managed to grind one out when Stephy Mavididi struck to cancel out Ross Barkley’s second-half sweet strike of an opener for Villa.
Jordan Ayew drove down the right and picked out Jamie Vardy with an inch-perfect cross.
The old Fox managed to wriggle in front of Ezri Konsa to get his shot off and looked to have ended his seven-match goalless streak against Villa until Emi Martinez defied him with a stunning point-blank save.
But Mavididi was on hand to slam the loose ball home from close range and send the Foxes’ travelling support into a frenzy.
That strike came just six minutes after Villa had seized the lead through Barkley.
Youri Tielemans collected a weak Jannik Vestergaard headed clearance and the ball fell kindly to Barkley who took it down on his chest and delivered a thunderous low shot which sped beyond Stolarczyk.
At last we had a game to get excited about because the first half was simply abysmal.
Emery had used his programme notes to reveal he is hungry for more success with Champions League contenders Villa.
But for 45 appalling minutes, his players looked as if they had lost their appetite for the fight as they only managed one shot on target.
It was quite simply the worst half of football I have had the misfortune to witness this season.
Talk about a slow-burner – after a first half of utter dross, the game hadn’t even started to smoulder.
Matty Cash had a header easily saved by Stolarczyk and Watkins saw a shot blocked by Conor Coady.
But the only real noteworthy incident was Villa skipper McGinn limping off to be replaced by Ramsey – to join Pau Torres, Diego Carlos and Jaden Philogene on the Villa’s growing crocked list.
However, Emery’s men came out after the break with some fire in the bellies.
Tielemans set the tone with an early shot which Stolarczyk got down well to save before the quickfire goals at either end.
But Villa couldn’t be sure of all three points until Bailey answered his gaffer’s SOS with his timely winner to end his 19-game Premier goal drought.
It was a sore way for Ruud van Nistelrooy to suffer a fifth straight defeat but he will take heart from the way his side battled for 90 minutes.