BARKLEY IS LAST ACTION HERO FOR VILLANS:

LAST- MINUTE STUNNER ROCKS FOXES

ROSS BARKLEY kept up Aston Villa’s impressive winning start with a last- minute bolt out of the blue.

The England midfielder, on loan from Chelsea, stamped his mark all over this ordinary affair with a 90th- minute thunderbolt.

That was enough to make it four wins out of four for Villa, who are breathing down the neck of leaders Everton with a game in hand.

In fairness, Barkley had not done an awful lot before he stopped this game becoming the first 0- 0 draw in the 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 in to the bottom corner beyond the full stretch of Kasper Schmeichel.

For a match that promised so much, it proved to be something of a disappointment, with precious few serious attempts on goal at either end.

It was a bitty encounter frequently interrupted with fouls and resulted in four players being booked in the first half and three more 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 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 keep his shirt on in the process. Soon after, Youri Tielemans was shown yellow for a crunching tackle on McGinn. There were more re to follow after the break k – Douglas Luiz for a foul on James Maddison, Timothy Castagne on Grealish and Jonny y Evans for hacking down wn Ollie Watkins. But that apart, it was a half quite easily forgotten, though Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers, below, would probably have taken more encouragement from it considering they were missing such key players.

Jamie Vardy was ruled out with a calf problem and no Caglar Soyuncu holding things together at the back. Even star midfielder James Maddison, making his way back from injury, was introduced later on off the bench.

For Villa, it was a different story. Manager Dean Smith was 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 it might take some magic to break the deadlock. There was no real sign of it before Barkley stepped up to the mark, nudging the ball to the side of Hamza Choudhury before finding the b bottom corner with a well- st struck right footer that left Villa celebrating

wi wildly.