Aston Villa increased their goal tally for the season to 13 as they finally found their shooting boots to thrash Bournemouth 4-0 at Villa Park and leapfrog their visitors into seventh place in the Premier League.
Bournemouth lost captain Adam Smith to a head injury in the opening minutes after an accidental collision with team-mate Tyler Adams and never found their rhythm following that early adjustment, with Villa turning their first-half dominance into a lead through Emi Buendia’s superb free-kick.
Minutes before the break Amadou Onana opened his account for the season with a crisp strike to beat Djordje Petrovic.
“We started in the worst way, having to make a change straight away but we can’t use this as an excuse, the first half was really poor from us,” Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola told Sky Sports after the game.
He was more content with his side after the break, with Evanilson hitting a post from a corner during their best spell before the visitors’ threw away a huge comeback opportunity from the penalty spot.
Morgan Rogers’ inadvertent handball was spotted by referee John Brooks but after a robust debate with Marcus Tavernier, Antoine Semenyo put the ball down before he was denied by an excellent Emi Martinez save from 12 yards.
That sprung Villa back into life and substitute Ross Barkley rubbed salt into the Cherries’ wounds when he glanced home a corner moments after coming on to seal victory, before Donyell Malen added a fortuitous fourth late on when he deflected in Youri Tielemans’ long-range effort.
Villa’s fifth win from six lifted them two points off second-placed Chelsea, while a second successive defeat drops Bournemouth from third at the start of last weekend to ninth.
Emery: We have recovered from poor start
Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery to Sky Sports:
“I’m really happy. Since the last break we have got some wins in the Premier League to recover our poor start, to build the team in the image that we want. As well as in the Europa League, we can now rest feeling better than two months ago.
“It was a huge effort, to manage the squad with different players and moments, try to get the performance collectively through and individually, we can feel proud of how we did that after the defeat at Liverpool.”
Iraola: ‘Very, very poor first half’
Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola to Sky Sports:
“Obviously, it was a deserved win for Villa. Even if it’s a 4-0, 2-0 and 2-0 in each half, they’re very different halves. In the first half we were very, very poor. We did not compete at the level of the game. In the second half we competed a lot better.
“At the end of the game, it was a little bit more nervy but we didn’t take our chances. We were more us in the second half. We started in the worst way, we had to make a change straight away but we can’t use this as an excuse, the first half was really poor from us.”
