Ten-man Watford pile on the misery for relegation rivals Villa
Watford were able to celebrate a crushing victory over relegation rivals that was achieved with 10 men; the revival under their third manager of the season continues to amaze.
Aston Villa, like bottom club Norwich City, have stuck with the manager who led them to promotion last season. So far. This was 90 minutes that en- hanced the reputation of Nigel Pearson, the relegation escapologist, and greatly damaged Dean Smith’s.
Villa had legitimate grievances over goals two and three, where refereeing decisions favoured the hosts, but there is no hiding from a three-goal defeat by a team a man down for more than half an hour.
Troy Deeney scored two of the goals and Ismaila Sarr the third in a game where the score was only 1-0 when Adrian Mariappa was sent off in the 57th minute.
Deeney, a Birmingham City fan, had scored the winner in each of Watford’s 3-2 victories over Villa in the 2015-16 season. The Midlanders went on to be relegated and will drop down again on this showing.
Watford remain second bottom but have won two, drawn two and lost just once, at Liverpool, since former Leicester manager Pearson was hired at the start of the month. Villa’s decision to hand Smith a four-year deal shortly before that looks to be an error.
“It is a start with recent results, but if anyone thinks we have cracked it, that is not the case,” said Pearson. “I was really pleased with the concentration. We had to deal with adversity after the red card. We changed formation, but didn’t want to defend too deep and kept the balance and some threat.”
Smith said: “There was a lot of frustration out there with the man advantage, the players’ minds got frazzled by the second and third goals. We always knew it would be a tough season. Am I thinking about my future? No, I am thinking about the next game.”
The first half saw Christian Kabasele poke an early Watford chance at Villa goalkeeper Tom Heaton and Wesley, the visitors’ less-than-prolific front man, have a downward header palmed away to safety by Ben Foster in the Watford goal.
Deeney was guilty of a tame prod from five yards straight at Heaton, but made up for that with the opening goal in the 42nd minute. Centre-back Ezri Konsa was at fault for allowing Deeney to charge down his clearance and Abdoulaye Doucoure’s shot was parried by the diving Heaton, but Watford’s No 9 nipped in to slot the rebound through the goalkeeper and beyond a defender sliding over the line.
Villa appeared to have been given a direct route to parity at the very least in the 57th minute, when Mariappa was shown a second yellow card, for a foul on Henri Lansbury, six minutes after being booked for impeding Jack Grealish. Pearson reacted by replacing midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah, who had gone on for the injured Will Hughes at half-time, with defender Craig Dawson and it worked.
Watford were rewarded with a 67thminute penalty, conceded by Konsa with a barge that toppled Deeney as play continued despite Villa’s Matt Targett being down injured. The video assistant referee confirmed it, Targett was helped off and Deeney drilled the spot-kick past Heaton for his third goal of the season.
VAR helped Watford again in the 71st minute by ruling there had been no foul on Grealish, before the impressive Sarr finished off a swift breakaway. “The second goal, there is no controversy – it is not a penalty,” Smith said. “There is no feel for the game at Stockley Park. And, before that, Jack Grealish didn’t know Matt Targett was down with a hamstring injury, or he would have put it out. Watford did know, that’s their decision to play on.
“The third goal, they looked at a possible foul on Grealish and said he got the ball but he didn’t, so they got that wrong as well in their ivory tower.” Watford (4-2-3-1) Foster 7; Mariappa 7, Cathcart 7 (Masina 84), Kabasele 7, Femenia 7; Capoue 7, Hughes 6 (Chalobah 46, Dawson 60); Sarr 8, Doucoure 7, Deulofeu 8; Deeney 7. Subs Gomes (g), Gray, Quina, Success. Booked Capoue, Sarr, Deeney. Sent off Mariappa. Aston Villa (4-3-3) Heaton 7; El Mohamady 6, Konsa 6, Hause 6, Targett 7 (Guilbert 66); Lansbury 5 (Kodjia 73), Luiz 6, Hourihane 6; Jota 5 (El Ghazi h-t), Wesley 5, Grealish 6. Subs Nyland (g), Chester, Nkamaba, Trezeguet. Booked Grealish. Referee Simon Hooper (Wiltshire).