Jack’s highs and lows sum up season for the heroic Villans
ARSENAL (3) Aubameyang 5 (pen), 33 Tierney 24 BURNLEY (1) Wood 44
CHELSEA (2) Mount 45 Giroud 45 CRYSTAL PAL (0) Schlupp 53 EVERTON (1) Kean 41
LEICESTER (0)
MAN CITY (2) Gabriel Jesus 11 De Bruyne 45, 90 Sterling 79 Mahrez 83 NEWCASTLE (1) Gayle 1
SOUTHMPTN (0) Adams 50, 71 Ings 84 (pen) WEST HAM (0) Yarmolenko 85 3 WATFORD (1) 2 Deeney 43 (pen) Welbeck 66
BRIGHTON (1) Bissouma 20 Connolly 50
2 WOLVES (0)
1
1
TOTTENHAM (1) Kane 13 BOURNEMTH (2) 3 King 13 (pen) Solanke 45 Stanislas 80
0 MAN UTD (0) 2 Fernandes 71 (pen) Lingard 90
5 NORWICH (0) 1 1
LIVERPOOL (1) van Dijk 38 Origi 59 Mane 89
3 SHEFF UTD (1)
Lundstram 26
1
2 0 1 0 3 1
ASTON VILLA (0) 1 Grealish 84
JACK GREALISH in tears, Tyrone Mings a titan and Dean Smith the man who kept his head when all about them were losing theirs.
After a relegation scrap that for so long appeared a fait accompli, the Villans have emerged the heroes. The never-ending story of this most dramatic of Premier League seasons has produced a fairytale finale for Aston Villa.
For five-and-a-half months Smith’s promoted side languished in the drop zone, choking on the dust of battle-hardened clubs better suited to top flight football.
Between February and July, allowing for lockdown, Smith’s men lost eight of their 10 league games and drew the other two. Heads could have dropped. Patience upstairs could have run out. Neither did.
Then, a lifeline. Victory at home to Palace on July 12. A point at Everton on July 16, Trezeguet’s goal to seal that shock win at home to Arsenal last week.
Now this.
Yes, the Midlanders will look back at that point they should never have had against Sheffield United the first game after restart - when Villa keeper Oyvind Nyland carried the ball over his line but neither goal-line technology nor VAR spotted it.
Yet Villa could make the case they created their own luck - Mings’ 90th-minute winner at home to Watford in January, the Grealish winner at Burnley three weeks earlier, the Boxing Day winner for Conor Hourihane against Norwich and the 90th-minute goal to grab all the points at home to Brighton in October.
Either way, the whiteknuckle ride here encapsulated a campaign in which the leadership of Smith and assistant John Terry (above) has triumphed in adversity.
Smith, raised a Villa fan, endured the agony during lockdown of the death of his father Ron, aged 79, who contracted Covid-19.
He found the strength to go back to work and lift himself to inspire his men. Among them Grealish, Villa fan and captain about whom so much has been written this season. He appeared to have written his own headlines with a superb strike at West Ham with six minutes left.
Yet just 60 seconds later he was left with his head in his hands. Hammers sub Andriy Yarmolenko’s hopeful effort from the edge of the box deflected off Grealish and looped over keeper Pepe Reina and in. Game on. Bournemouth’s 3-1 lead at Everton meant a West Ham goal would send Villa down. David Moyes’ men, to their credit, were up for it as well. Their lack of cutting edge, however, would again cost them. When Moyes restructures this summer, more goals will be a priority.
Smith, his backroom staff and squad remained in a huddle on the pitch after the final whistle.
They were waiting for confirmation of the results from Goodison and the Emirates where Watford had come back from 3-0 down to 3-2. They need not have worried.