Villa edge past ten-man Blades as City open campaign with victory at Wolves
Aston Villa opened their Premier League campaign with a 1-0 home victory over ten-man Sheffield United last night, Ezri Konsa netting the winner for Dean Smith’s side.
Villa were playing with a man more than their opp o - nents from the 12th minute when Blades captain John Egan was shown a straight red card having been deemed to have denied Ollie Watkins a goalscoring opportunity. The striker was running on to a long ball by Tyrone Mings, which opened up the United defence, when he was hauled back by Egan, referee Graham Scott’ s decision standing after a VAR check.
But it took a great stop by Villa’s debutant goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to prevent them from falling behind in the 36 th minute as the summer signing from Arsenal kept out John Lund st ram’ s spot-kick after Chris Basham had gone down in the box following a tackle by Matt Targett and another VAR check.
Villa made the decisive breakthrough after 63 minutes when Target t’ s corner was flicked on by Mings and Konsa, pictured, headed past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
As Villa pressed forward in a bid to extend their lead, Jack Grealish sent a couple of efforts wide, with Trezeguet and John Mcginn doing likewise.
But there was no further addition to the scoring and Smith’s team were up and running at the first time of asking. While Villa celebrate a winning star t, the result leaves Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United pointless after two matches.
Later, Manchester City made a winning start to their season with a 3-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.
Kevin deBruy ne opened the scoring for the visitors from the penalty spot after 19 minutes having been brought down in the box by Romain Saiss.PhilFod en doubled the lead 12 minutes later, finishing off a slick City move by slotting home Ra he em Sterling’s cutback. A resurgent Wolves fought back in the second half, but squandered several good chances before Raul Jiminez pulled ago al back after 78 minutes.
Daniel Pod encew as the creator, cheekily slip ping the ball through De Bruyne’s legs before delivering a perfect cross for Jiminez to beat goalkeeper Ederson with a bullet header from eight yards.
However, City made the points safe in added time when De Bruyne dispossessed Willy Boly, allowing Gabriel Jesus to lash a fierce shot into the roof of the net.