.png)
2 days ago
18
Aston Villa were already seething at trailing to 10-man Brentford and then, four minutes into the second half, those frustrations grew tenfold. Tammy Abraham thought he had made a goalscoring return, his first since winning promotion from the Championship seven years ago, but then it was all eyes on the referee, Tim Robinson, and the big screens that indicated a review. At Stockley Park, the video assistant referee, Paul Tierney, rewound the clock by 19 seconds, to the moment Leon Bailey, at the opposite end of the pitch, was deemed to have failed to keep the ball in play.
After a VAR delay of almost four minutes, Robinson’s mic connected with the stadium speakers. “After review, the ball is factually out of play, so the restart will be a throw-in to Brentford,” the referee said amid mass groans – and much worse – from the restless locals. The Premier League’s Match Centre said the ball was out of play “within the attacking possession phase (APP)”.
Bailey, recalled from Roma last month, was on his backside when the ball appeared to run out of play near the corner flag. Villa kickstarted their attack from there, diagonally moving upfield, culminating in Jadon Sancho jinking inside Jordan Henderson and forcing Caoimhín Kelleher into a save. Abraham was quickest to the rebound and wheeled away in celebration, but it was short-lived. Invariably, the discourse surrounding the decision is unlikely to die down anytime soon.
Brentford went close to compounding matters, Kristoffer Ajer almost scoring from the subsequent throw-in, launched into the box by Michael Kayode; it was one of just two shots Keith Andrews’s side mustered on target, the other Dango Ouattara’s brilliant goal in first-half stoppage time, five minutes after Kevin Schade was sent off. Ouattara raced on to a long ball into the channel and after his attempt to square the ball for Igor Thiago was blocked by Pau Torres, from an awkward angle he simply cut inside on to his left boot and lashed an unerring strike into the far top corner.
For Keith Andrews, whose side moved within four points of fifth-placed Chelsea, this victory represented another feather in the cap, the Brentford manager getting one over on Unai Emery, by comparison a veteran. Villa had lost just two league games here since the start of last season, though this defeat means they have lost successive home games for the first time in two years.
The inevitable Villa onslaught felt unsustainable from a Brentford perspective. The visitors had to withstand waves of pressure. Sancho ran at Kayode time and again, with varying degrees of success. Emery urged his players to recycle and start over. Kelleher smothered an Emi Buendía effort at the back post approaching the hour, by which point it had long turned into a game of attack v defence. After beating Kayode to the byline, Sancho’s cute cutback eluded those in claret and blue that had loaded the box. Matty Cash saw a stinging effort repelled by Kelleher and then the Brentford goalkeeper and captain, Mathias Jensen, went down for treatment.
Brentford badly required some respite. It had developed into quite a draining experience for everyone of a Villa persuasion. Emery turned to Harvey Elliott, this his seventh appearance in all competitions since joining on loan from Liverpool last summer and only second since October. Rico Henry needed medical treatment on 82 minutes, though while the irate home support presumed it was time-wasting tactics, moments later Brentford introduced Aaron Hickey in his place.
Villa tried to force an equaliser. Morgan Rogers whipped a devilish cross into the six-yard box that went unmet and in the 90th minute Bailey spooned a superb chance over. The Jamaica winger darted inside Hickey, but then ballooned over.
