Aston Villa 2-1 Burnley: Clarets leave it too little, too late as they fall to another defeat
Burnley left it too little, too late to pick up a result against Aston Villa as they slumped to their fifth defeat from their first seven games.
Lesley Ugochukwu gave the Clarets hope when he headed home 12 minutes from time to halve Burnley’s deficit.
The visitors were already two down at that point, having conceded two sloppy goals to Donyell Malen, who took advantage of the acres of space afforded to him.
While competitive for the first half, Burnley never really looked like scoring and once Villa edged their noses in front, the result never looked in doubt.
But Ugochukwu’s header gave them some faint hope late on, but Scott Parker’s side were unable to capitalise and score an unlikely second.
As a result, the Clarets remain inside the Premier League’s bottom three ahead of the October international break, with the season resuming with a big clash against Leeds United.
There was a surprise exclusion from Burnley’s starting XI, as Hjalmar Ekdal dropped out following last week’s 5-1 defeat to Manchester City.
Axel Tuanzebe came in to make his first league appearance for Burnley in his place, while Ekdal dropped out of the squad entirely.
It’s understood Ekdal remains fit and hasn’t picked up any knocks.
Tuanzebe, who spent three loan spells at Villa earlier in his career, has previously made two appearances in the Carabao Cup for the Clarets this season since signing on a free transfer.
Elsewhere, Jordan Beyer, Connor Roberts and Zeki Amdouni all remain injured.
As for Villa, they made four changes from Thursday night’s Europa League win over Feyenoord.
Emi Martinez was passed fit and started in goal despite pulling out of Villa’s starting line-up in midweek. Ross Barkley and Amadou Onana returned on the bench.
Burnley have been guilty of making some slow starts to games so far this season, conceding relatively early in four of their first six games.
But they’ve looked threatening early on here, opting to press on the front foot and get after Villa, rather than sit back and soak up the early pressure.
The first half chance of sorts came the way of the home side though, as Lucas Digne’s threatening corner flew across the six-yard box with Donyell Malen and Ollie Watkins both close to finding a decisive touch.
The Clarets hit back with a really good chance of their own, as Quilindschy Hartman was thwarted by Martinez after being picked out by one of Kyle Walker’s trademark crossfield balls. Jaidon Anthony’s shot was then blocked on the follow-up.
The linesman’s flag did eventually go up, but it looked like a tight decision that could have gone either way upon VAR review.
Martin Dubravka then had to be alert to make a good save to deny Ezri Konsa, who beat Axel Tuanzebe to head Digne’s corner towards goal.
At the other end, Burnley continued to get into some good attacking positions, but just lacked that final pass.
While the Clarets were on top at this point in terms of possession and territory, the hosts were beginning to look threatening in behind on the counter.
Midway through the first-half, that’s how Villa took the lead with a goal of real simplicity. Burnley weren’t able to win the ball in midfield and one simple pass left Malen one-on-one with Maxime Esteve, who wasn’t able to get over quickly enough to stop the forward from steering the ball beyond Dubravka.
From a Burnley perspective, it was worrying to see how easily their back five was able to be pulled out of position, with one pass opening up acres of space in behind.
The Clarets could easily have levelled 10 minutes before the interval when Josh Cullen almost picked out the bottom corner after Walker’s long throw had been partially cleared to the edge of the box, but Martinez did superbly to tip the effort wide.
Villa wanted a penalty when Morgan Rogers went to ground inside the area under the slightest of pressure from Tuanzebe, but the appeals were ignored and VAR didn’t intervene either.
Esteve was then required to make a last-ditch block on the stroke of half-time to deny Malen a second as Villa played through Burnley far too easily.
The half ended with Unai Emery’s side going close again, as Ollie Watkins fired over on the turn from about 10 yards out.
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There was no real reaction from Burnley at the start of the second-half, with Villa continuing to look the most threatening. Dubravka was again required to make an important stop, making himself big to deny Rogers.
Parker opted to change things up on the hour mark, introducing Jacob Bruun Larsen and Armando Broja for Tchaouna and Anthony.
But within a few minutes of the changes, Burnley found themselves going two down.
While it was a quality finish from Malen for his second of the game, Burnley again made it far too easy for the home side - standing off Rogers, who produced the pass, and Esteve was two or three yards away from the goalscorer.
Villa went in search of a third and almost got it when, once again, Burnley were left far too open in the middle of the park. That allowed Matty Cash the time to settle himself for a long-range effort, which skipped off Esteve and looked to be heading towards the bottom corner, only for Dubravka to produce a strong hand to tip it around the post.
Despite being two goals down, Parker opted to take a striker off in Foster and replace him with Lesley Ugochukwu. Was this a case of damage limitation? Or an attempt to wrangle control of the wide open midfield?
With 12 minutes remaining, we got the answer to that question when the substitute headed home for Burnley to halve the deficit.
The midfielder was left completely unmarked to meet Quilindschy Hartman’s corner, heading home from just six yards out.
It’s not like the goal had been coming, in fact it was only Burnley’s second attempt on goal during the entire game.
While it provided the visitors with hope, they were unable to force any late pressure. In fact, it was Dubravka who was forced into making a late save, diving at full stretch to turn Lucas Digne’s effort behind.
The game was delayed by a lengthy stoppage, as Villa sub Emi Buendia was forced to trudge off after taking a blow to the head. But once the game resumed, the Clarets were unable to fashion one last chance to snatch an unlikely point.
TEAMS
Villa: Martinez, Cash (Lindelof), Konsa, Pau, Digne, Kamara, Bogarde (Onana), Malen (Barkley), McGinn (Guessand), Rogers, Watkins (Buendia, Maatsen)
Subs not used: Bizot, Elliott, Jimoh
Burnley: Dubravka, Walker, Laurent (Flemming), Tuanzebe, Esteve (Worrall), Hartman, Cullen, Florentino, Tchaouna (Bruun Larsen), Anthony (Broja), Foster (Ugochukwu)
Subs not used: Weiss, Humphreys, Hannibal, Edwards
Referee: Andrew Kitchen
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