WESLEY and Jack Grealish provided the perfect response to yet another VAR howler to claim Aston Villa’s first win at Turf Moor for 60 years.
Dean Smith’s team were robbed of an 11th-minute goal after the faceless video watchers took an age to decide Wesley was marginally offside in the build-up that ended with Grealish heading past Nick Pope.
Jack Grealish scored as Aston Villa ground out a 2-1 win at BurnleyCredit: Reuters
Aston Villa had a goal ruled out with Wesley’s heel seen to be offside
Wesley opened the scoring for Aston Villa shortly after the VAR howlerCredit: Reuters
Even the Burnley fans looked stunned by the decision, and Villa boss Smith – who has already taken a few swipes at VAR – looked ready to explode.
But justice was done 16 minutes later as Grealish and Wesley carved the Burnley rearguard apart with a neat one-two, and the Brazilian striker slammed the ball home between Pope’s legs.
That ended a 12-match Premier League drought for Wesley.
But it turned sour for the bustling front man when he was stretchered off ten minutes from time after tangling with Ben Mee.
Former Clarets skipper Tom Heaton suffered the same fate ten minutes later, after injuring a knee trying to keep out Chris Wood’s consolation goal.
The Burnley fans must have been fearing the worst after that Villa’s opening goal, as they have not managed a single win this season without keeping a clean sheet.
And their fate was confirmed four minutes before when Grealish got the goal he deserved, lashing the ball past Pope after Jack Cork had lost possession just inside the Villa half.
That Cork blunder summed up the woeful Clarets’ first half performance – a failing that is becoming a recurring theme.
This was the ninth successive match in which they failed to score in the opening 45 minutes, and they could not even muster a single shot on target.
It would have been even worse if England keeper Pope had not come to the home team’s rescue with a terrific double save to deny Douglas Luiz and the lively Wesley.
Luiz wasted another great chance with a tame shot two minutes into the second half.
Grealish did get on the score-sheet late in the first-half to make it 2-0Credit: Reuters
Chris Wood grabbed what turned out to be merely a consolation goal for BurnleyCredit: Reuters
Sean Dyche’s double substitution at the break – replacing Ashley Barnes and Robbie Brady with Jay Rodriguez and Johann Berg Gudmundsson – injected some life into his side.
Rodriguez somehow spooned the ball over the bar from two yards out, while Wood was miles wide with a couple of efforts before he finally found the target with a back post header on 80 minutes.
But even with nine minutes of added time, that goal proved too little, too late.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
