Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BARK AND BITE!
Villa have Prem League licked as Ross snatches win
ROSS BARKLEY kept up Aston Villa’s impressive winning start with a last-minute bolt from the blue.
The England midfielder, on loan from Chelsea, stamped his mark all over this extremely ordinary game with a 90th-minute thunderbolt.
That was enough to make it four wins out of four for Villa boss Dean Smith (below right, with Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers). His men are breathing down the neck of leaders Everton, with a game in hand.
In fairness, Barkley hadn’t done an awful lot when he struck right at the death and stopped this becoming the first 0-0 draw in the Premier League this season.
It was certainly heading g that way and there hadn’t been too oo much indication thin gs s could change when the midfielder intervened.
He picked up on a square ball from John Mcginn, clipped i it to his right to o create an opening and sent a
20-yarder screaming into the bottom corner beyond d the h full -s -stretch Kasper Schmeichel.
It was a goal worthy of winning any game but it was an effort wh which didn’t have much competitio tion in the context of this rather or ordinary encounter.
Surprising really, because both sides si have been tearing a trail up n near the top with impressive s starts. But for a match that p promised so much it proved to b be a disappointment with p precious few serious attempts o on goal at either end.
It was a bitty encounter, one f frequently interrupted with f fouls which saw four players b booked in the first half and t three more carded after the break. Referee Jon Moss kept the yellow card in his pocket as long as he could, but before long it became clear that he needed to start taking action.
Ayoze Perez was the first to be cautioned for a late challenge on Jack Grealish (inset) in the 32nd minute and within 60 seconds John Mcginn joined him for sending Harvey Barnes tumbling.
Matty Cash followed suit when he looked like he was trying to undress Barnes as the Leicester man tried to get away from him.
And soon after Youri Tielemans was shown yellow for a crunching tackle on Mcginn. There were more to follow after the break – Douglas Luiz for a foul on James Maddison, Timothy Castagne on Grealish and Jonny Evans for hacking down Ollie Watkins. But that apart it was a half quite easily forgotten, though Leicester would probably have taken more encouragement from it considering they were missing so many of their key players.
No Jamie Vardy up front and no Caglar Soyuncu holding thi things t together at the back.
Even star midfielder James Maddison, making his way back from injury, was introduced later from the bench.
For Villa, it was a different story, boss Smith afforded the luxury of keeping the same side that thumped Liverpool 7-2 in their last outing.
But neither side could get the better of the other and you always sensed that if the deadlock was going to be broken it might just take a little moment of magic.
But there was no real sign of it, until Barkley stepped up to the mark to leave the Villa players jumping for joy.
It didn’t seem on, but Barkley had other ideas, nudging the ball to the side of Hamza Choudhur y before f indin g the bottom corner with a well-struck right-footer.