BARKLEY’S BANKED IT
Ross cashes in for Villa at St Mary’s
JACK GREALISH conjured the magic that made Aston Villa’s awful record against Southampton finally disappear.
The Villa captain created the only goal for Ross Barkley as the battle of the mid-table sliders went the way of Dean Smith’s men.
Villa had not beaten the Saints in their previous nine meetings, stretching back almost eight years, but it was Grealish’s superb cross for Barkley to head home that proved the decisive moment.
Saints manager Ralph Hasenhuttl had made three changes from the side beaten 3-1 at home by Arsenal – bringing in Ryan Bertrand, Oriol Romeu and Nathan Redmond.
Villa’s Dean Smith reacted to his own team’s defeat to Burnley with more caution, sticking with the same line-up.
That meant his new £15.5million signing from Marseille, Morgan Sanson was on the bench.
Villa created an early chance when Barkley slid in Ollie Watkins, but the striker screwed his shot wide.
When Southampton did click into gear, though, they felt aggrieved they were not given a chance to open the scoring from the penalty spot.
Danny Ings’ sharp turn set up Stuart Armstrong and his shot was blocked by the arm of Matthew Cash. The call went to VAR but the handball appeared to be ruled out by a marginal offside decision against Ings.
Villa’s only threat appeared to be the occasional flicker from Grealish, wide on the left, but he was usually an isolated figure.
When Ings and Armstrong combined on the left, there was plenty of space for Romeu to test Emiliano Martinez in the Villa goal, but the Spaniard skied his shot high into the empty stand.
Gradually, though, Villa began to look stronger – usually sparked by the ingenuity of Grealish – and they went ahead four minutes before the break through Barkley.
Moments earlier a quick throw to Grealish had sparked confusion in the home defence and a Watkins shot was palmed away by Alex McCarthy.
The next time Grealish intervened, the keeper could do nothing.
Matt Targett clipped a pass into Grealish’s path and the Villa skipper half-volleyed an inviting cross into the Saints’ goalmouth which Barkley nodded firmly past McCarthy.
It was Barkley’s fourth goal of the season, but his first since October, and it could have prompted even better things for Smith’s side before the break if McCarthy had not got down sharply to a shot from Watkins.
Hasenhuttl seemed to have stoked Southampton’s fires at the break and their urgency lifted.
The Saints boss made some changes. It almost worked as sub Che Adams was played in by Ings, only to be denied by Martinez with time running out.
Then Ings had the ball in the net for the equaliser in added time – a VAR consultaion showed that his arm was offside. No goal.
It was not to be Saints’ night.