The finish was chaotic but, when the dust settles, this perhaps was the afternoon when Aston Villa made a decisive spurt for the finish line to claim Champions League qualication. As Tammy Abraham touched in the winner three minutes into injury time, Unai Emery ran on to the pitch in celebration. Yet just a minute earlier Habib Diarra had been sent clean through with a chance of his own to win it. Emi Martínez, though, stretched up to save his dink, and the road was cleared for the Villa winner.
It was a game played amid a strange spirit of relaxation, with both sides having effectively achieved their ambitions for the season before kick-off: for Sunderland, avoiding the drop, and for Villa qualifying for the Champions League; Emery’s fifth Europa League success, itself a potential route into the premier competition, may still come as a bonus. This was just Villa’s fifth win in 15 league games since their run of eight league wins in a row came to an end in late December, and as a result they now have a 10-point lead over Chelsea in sixth with five games remaining.
Sunderland still need a point to be mathematically sure of staying up but realistically they have been safe since winning the Tyne-Wear derby before the international break. European qualification was always a distant dream, and would bring with it strains that this squad may not yet be ready to withstand; for them the main goal now is to finish above Newcastle, whom they lead by four points.
It was a slightly odd game as well in that, for both sides, at least in the formative stages of the contest before everything opened up later on, the majority of the attacking threat came on the right.
Quite apart from delivering the corner that Amadou Onana headed against the bar, John McGinn was a constant menace making runs in and around Reinildo, while for Sunderland Chris Rigg was far more involved from a creative point of view than Enzo Le Fée – at least until he was withdrawn after 63 minutes as Villa began to take control. Tyrone Mings, meanwhile, returning to the Villa side after a month out, had the better of an extremely physical battle with the Sunderland centre-forward Brian Brobbey.
Ollie Watkins had scored his 100th goal for the club against Bologna in the Europa League on Thursday and his 101st and 102nd followed before half-time. Within two minutes he had nodded in at the back post after McGinn had evaded the attentions of Le Fée and Noah Sadiki to cross for him. His second came nine minutes before the break, from Villa’s first meaningful left-sided thrust, Morgan Rogers holding the ball up cleverly before laying in Ian Maatsen, who had got away from Rigg, to deliver the perfect cross for Watkins to head in again.
If anything, going behind so early seemed to settle Sunderland, who had a couple of half-chances even before equalising after nine minutes with a strike of real quality. Diarra had the patience to work an opening on the right, cutting back to Sadiki whose instant lay-off gave Rigg time to pick his spot and curl his first Premier League goal into the far corner. For all his experience, Rigg is still only 18, but the esteem with which his teammates hold him was evident in the mass celebration, which culminated with Sadiki banging the ball off his head.
Quick Guide
Aston Villa 4-3 Sunderland key facts
Show
• Sunderland are the 20th team and final team to have an English goalscorer in the Premier League this season, and Chris Rigg (pictured) became the first such scorer for them in the competition since Jermain Defoe and Billy Jones against Hull in May 2017.
• Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins has now scored 10+ goals in all six of his Premier League seasons (11 this term); only Sadio Mané (8) has played in more campaigns in the competition’s history while reaching double figures for goals in every one. Opta
It seemed at that point that Sunderland would suffer for being less clinical than Villa. Le Fée was caught in possession by McGinn in the first minute of the second half, initiating a break that was finished off by Rogers. The 23-year-old has been a little out of sorts lately – and suffered a similar drop-off last season – but he took his goal with a nerveless confidence clipping his finish past Robin Roefs and just inside the far post.
For then and the 40 minutes that followed the game seemed safe. But Trai Hume pulled one back after Jadon Sancho was dispossessed with another fine finish on an afternoon of them. Then Sancho was dispossessed again and Le Fée laid on Wilson Isidor for his first club goal since scoring at Stamford Bridge in October.
Remarkably, though, there was still more drama to come.