Aston Villa cruised to a deserved 3-1 victory over Manchester United in Unai Emery’s first game in charge of the Villans.
Aston Villa hosted Manchester United in a Premier League game on Sunday and got off to a flying start against the Red Devils in form. It took just seven minutes for the home team to break the tie, with Leon Bailey finding the target.
Jacob Ramsey brought in Bailey, and the latter drilled the ball into the far corner to give Aston Villa the lead.
The Red Devils trailed by two goals just four minutes later when Lucas Digne scored directly from a free kick. Luke Shaw fouled Ramsey in a dangerous position and the referee awarded Aston Villa a free kick. Digne stepped forward to take the shot and sent the ball into the top corner.
Man Utd suffer 3-1 defeat at the hands of Aston Villa
Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made two good saves to prevent Manchester United from getting back into the game. He first denied Alejandro Garnacho who hit from a tight angle.
MartÃnez then made another good save to prevent Cristiano Ronaldo from halving the deficit, with a header from the Portuguese after a Christian Eriksen cross that the Argentine deflected with his right boot.
However, Man Utd would eventually reduce their deficit to one goal before half time. Diogo Dalot sent a floating cross to the Aston Villa area that the locals half-cleared. Luke Shaw hit the ball from outside the box, and it deflected off Ramsey’s back and found the net.
Martinez, the Aston Villa goalkeeper, could only watch as the deflection left him flat-footed as Man Utd headed into half-time a goal down.
Aston Villa, however, restored their two-goal lead four minutes into the second half. A header clearance by Lisandro MartÃnez gave the ball to Aston Villa and the hosts counterattacked.
Emiliano BuendÃa passed the ball to Ollie Watkins who escorted him into the Man Utd box before cutting it off for Ramsey who emphatically finished it off to send Villa 3-1 up.
Manchester United never really seemed to recover from that as the Red Devils struggled to create clear chances and test Martinez in goal for Aston Villa.
The result sees Man Utd remain fifth in the Premier League points table, while Aston Villa climb to 13th place.
