A SHOT IN THE BARK
Late Ross rocket just perfect
ROSS BARKLEY kept up Villa’s fine 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 90thminute thunderbolt.
That made it four wins out of four for Villa, who are right up there and breathing down the neck of leaders Everton with a game in hand.
In fairness, Barkley hadn’t done an awful lot when he struck at the death and stopped this becoming the first 0- 0 draw in the Premier League this season.
He picked up on a square ball from John Mcginn, clipped it to his right to create an opening and sent a 20- yarder screaming beyond Kasper Schmeichel at full stretch.
It was a goal worthy of winning any game but it didn’t have much competition in the context of this rather drab encounter.
Surprising really, because both sides have been tearing a trail up near the top with impressive starts to the campaign.
For a match that promised so much, it proved something of a disappointment with precious few serious attempts on goal. It was a bitty encounter frequently interrupted with fouls which saw four players booked in the first half and three in the second.
Ayoze Perez was the first to be cautioned for a late challenge on Jack Grealish in the 32nd minute and within 60 seconds 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 keep his shirt on in the process 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 Leicester would probably have taken more encouragement from the first half, considering they were missing key players.
No Jamie Vardy for a start – last season’s Golden Boot winner ruled out with a calf problem – and no Caglar Soyuncu holding things together at the back. Even star midfielder Maddison, making his way back from injury, was introduced later on off the bench.
For Villa, it was a different story with manager Dean Smith afforded the luxury of keeping the same side that thumped Liverpool 7- 2 in their last outing.
But neither 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.
There was no real sign of it – then Barkley stepped up to the mark to leave the Villa players on and off the field jumping for joy.
It didn’t seem on, but he had other ideas, nudging the ball to the side of Hamza Choudhury before finding the bottom corner with a well- struck right- footer.