3 hours ago
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Aston Villa were already angry at trailing to 10-man Brentford and then, four minutes into the second half, those frustrations grew tenfold.
Tammy Abraham thought he had made a goalscoring return, his first Villa goal since winning promotion from the Championship seven years ago, but then it was all eyes on the referee, Tim Robinson, and the big screens flagging a review. At Stockley Park, the video assistant referee, Paul Tierney, rewound the clock by 19 seconds, to the moment Leon Bailey, at the opposite end of the pitch, was deemed to have failed to keep the ball in play.
After a VAR delay of almost four minutes, Robinson’s mic connected with the stadium speakers. “After review, the ball is factually out of play, so the restart will be a throw-in to Brentford,” the referee said amid mass groans – and much worse – from the restless locals. It was reminiscent of Newcastle’s winner against Arsenal in 2023, when Anthony Gordon’s goal was allowed to stand because there was no conclusive evidence the ball had gone out in the buildup, though seemingly there were no such problems at the VAR hub on this occasion. The Premier League’s match centre said the ball was out of play “within the attacking possession phase (APP)”.
Unai Emery suggested running play back so far sets a dangerous precedent. “I think it’s not fair, but it happened and I must accept it,” said the Villa manager. “The referees are so demanding of themselves to get everything right. If there is something they can improve, I know they will do it. My explanation is that the goal happened a long time after the initial incident, and if the linesman didn’t see it, we have to keep playing. It’s difficult for VAR to analyse this goal. It’s so tight. But when VAR asks the referee … the problem is the VAR must not ask the referee in this situation.”
Keith Andrews, the Brentford head coach, acknowledged the period of time before a goal the VAR should assess is the “million-dollar question”, but insisted Abraham’s disallowed goal was in the “same phase of play” as Bailey was facing his own goalline trying to keep the ball in play. Bailey, making a homecoming of a different kind after being recalled from Roma last month, was on his backside when the ball appeared to drift out of play near the corner flag. Villa kickstarted their attack from there, diagonally surging upfield, culminating in Jadon Sancho jinking inside Jordan Henderson and forcing Caoimhín Kelleher into an instinctive save. Abraham was quickest to the rebound and wheeled away in celebration, but it was short-lived. Invariably, the discourse surrounding the decision is unlikely to die down anytime soon.
Brentford went close to compounding Villa’s misery, Kristoffer Ajer almost scoring from the restart, long-throw specialist Michael Kayode launching the ball into the box. It was one of just two shots the visitors mustered on target, the other Dango Ouattara’s brilliant goal in first-half stoppage time, five minutes after Kevin Schade was sent off for petulantly shoving his studs into Matty Cash’s groin after the pair tangled.
Ouattara raced into the channel and after his attempt to square the ball for Igor Thiago was blocked by Pau Torres, from an awkward angle, he simply cut on to his left boot and lashed an unerring strike into the far top corner. Schade, Andrews said, was a relieved man. “He’s very grateful that his teammates put in the shift they did.”
For Andrews, whose side moved within four points of fifth-placed Chelsea, this victory represented another feather in the cap, the Brentford manager eight months into the job getting one over on Emery, by comparison a veteran. Villa had lost just two league games here since the start of last season, though this defeat means they have lost successive home games for the first time in two years. “To say the performance was pleasing is an understatement,” Andrews said. “It was a defensive masterclass in the second half. The desire to stop the ball going in our net was immense.”
The inevitable Villa onslaught felt unsustainable from a Brentford perspective. The visitors had to withstand waves of pressure. Sancho ran at Kayode time and again, with varying degrees of success. Kelleher smothered an Emi Buendía effort at the back post approaching the hour, by which point it had long turned into a game of attack v defence. A cute Sancho cutback eluded those in claret and blue that had loaded the box. Cash saw a stinging effort repelled by the busy Kelleher.
Brentford required some respite but it also proved a draining experience for everyone of a Villa persuasion. Emery turned to Harvey Elliott, who entered as a substitute for his seventh appearance in all competitions since joining on loan from Liverpool and only his second since October. Villa tried to force an equaliser. Morgan Rogers whipped a devilish cross into the six-yard box and in the 90th minute Bailey wasted Villa’s best chance, ballooning over after driving inside the substitute Aaron Hickey.
