Leicester 0-1 Aston Villa – Barkley steals the points

Aston Villa made it four wins from four in the Premier League after a last-minute goal from Ross Barkley secured the win against Leicester City tonight.

Dean Smith stuck with the same side that brushed the Premier League Champions to one side before the International break. Bjorn Engels returned to the matchday squad for the first time this season after recovering from injury.

Cagey affair

It was a cagey affair from what looked like to well-organised sides. Leicester appeared to settle quicker than Villa without looking a real threat.

Emiliano Martínez denied the home side on a few occasions with routine saves. First, he denied Timothy Castagne after Kelechi Iheanacho played the Belgian defender through. Then Iheanacho shot from 20 yards out but it was too close to the former Arsenal keeper.

Villa’s first chance came through Trezeguet. John McGinn played a diagonal ball wide to Matt Targett who then finds Jack Grealish. The Captain then lays the ball off to the Egyptian who’s left-foot strike went wide of the post.

Despite it not being a dirty game, both sides saw a few players pick up a few yellow cards before half time with Ayoze Perez and Youri Tielemans for Leicester and McGinn and Matt Cash for Villa.

Last-minute winner

Villa looked marginally better when things resumed in the second half and maybe should have taken the lead. Ezri Konsa was first to the ball from a corner but could only watch on as his header went wide – which was probably the best chance of the game for either side so far.

Leicester were then awarded a free-kick after James Justin was judged to have been brought down by Cash with minimal contact. Tieleman’s effort was denied by Martínez at the near post.

Grealish caused Leicester problems all night

Just like the first half, we had another spout of bookings with Douglas Luiz, Castagne and Jonny Evans all going into the referee’s book during a four-minute spell midway through the second half.

Villa eventually took the lead after 91 minutes. Ross Barkley picked the ball up in the middle of the field and then fired towards goals from 25 yards out and into the bottom corner.

Aston Villa remains the only club in England’s top five divisions with a 100% record.

Villa will now come up against Premier League newcomers Leeds United on Friday.

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