Aston Villa boosted their chances of Champions League football next season by winning 1-0 at Bournemouth thanks to Ollie Watkins’ record-breaking first-half winner.
Villa are now guaranteed a spot in Europe next season – but the competition they will play in remains unknown.
The win moves them into sixth place – above Nottingham Forest – and level on points with Newcastle and Chelsea, who sit in the final Champions League places and face each other on Sunday.
“Europe, Europe, we are in Europe – Conference League, Europa League or Champions League,” said Unai Emery to Sky Sports after the game.
“Of course, we try to get our best dreams in Europe – playing Champions League again – but still we have matches to play and there are other teams in front of us. But with this picture as well, we can feel positive in trying to get it.”
In truth, it was a classic Emery performance from the visitors, with Villa shutting off Bournemouth’s attacking agenda by creating a stop-start game. Villa then hit their own all-out attack style before half-time.
Marco Asensio hit the post before Kepa Arrizabalaga had to keep out Boubacar Kamara and Matty Cash with a double save – but Villa eventually took a lead into half-time as Watkins turned in Morgan Rogers’ cross.
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Ollie Watkins scores to put Villa ahead against Bournemouth
The goal survived a VAR check for offside as Watkins became Villa’s all-time highest Premier League goalscorer with 75 strikes.
Bournemouth tried to shake off Villa’s shackles by bringing Justin Kluivert on at half-time – but it did no good.
As Villa continued to shut off the hosts from open play, Bournemouth turned to their favoured weapon of set pieces. But Villa have their own machine from dead balls – they keep the best defensive record from set-pieces, conceding just two goals from them all season.
Even Jacob Ramsey’s red card for two bookings changed little. Antoine Semenyo, Evanilson and Illia Zabarnyi had late chances – but the former fired wide, while the other two could only fire straight at Emiliano Martinez.
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Aston Villa are reduced to 10 players as Jacob Ramsey is shown a second yellow card
There was one heart-in-mouth moment when Semenyo struck from close range, only for Martinez to parry the first shot, with Cash then denying Daniel Jebbison with a clearance off the line. But Villa deserved their clean sheet.
The Cherries registered an expected-goals (xG) tally of 0.8 – their second-lowest of the season. And the lowest? The return league game against Villa in October.
The result is a major blow to Bournemouth’s own European hopes as wins for Brentford and Brighton earlier in the day mean they sit in 10th place and two points behind their rivals.
Eighth spot could be enough for Conference League football and Bournemouth are running out of time to claim it.
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Aston Villa keep their lead as Emiliano Martinez pulls off a stunning save in stoppage time.
Analysis: Emery produces managerial masterclass
Losing your best player and January marquee signing to season-ending injuries? Facing a slick attacking outfit in Bournemouth? No problem for Unai Emery.
This was a classic Emery performance which rubber-stamped his status as one of the best managers you want in your corner at this end of the season. This was a tactical masterclass.
Villa’s forward line was weakened due to injuries to Marcus Rashford – and more recently Youri Tielemans. The Belgian has held the keys to unlocking defences so Emery shut up shop.
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Unai Emery gives a hilarious response when asked about Aston Villa’s battle for the Champions League
Victory at Bournemouth saw Villa record their lowest possession numbers for a game in two years. They also made it a stop-start game to deny the Cherries any sort of flow – this contest saw 21 cards over the two games, the most for a fixture in a single campaign in Premier League history.
No wonder Bournemouth could only produce 1.1 worth of expected goals over the course of the two games – by far and away the lowest they’ve managed against any team this term.
In the battle of the Basque managers, Emery has got one over Andoni Iraola once again. With two big ‘cup finals’ to come in Villa’s quest for Champions League football, expect Emery to keep delivering.
Emery: We needed the defence today
Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery to Sky Sports:
“For 38 matches, our first objective throughout Premier League is try to be consistent. Try to achieve our objective in it, individually and collectively, how we can feel strong for a long time.
“Today we showed it. The players competed really well, it’s difficult here – Bournemouth are performing fantastic as well.
“We are going to play Tottenham at home and we are going to focus on this match only. It will be important the other results teams are getting. We have to do our work.
“Playing in Europe? I am so happy playing the third year in a row in Europe. Then if we can play in the Champions League? Better.
“I told the players we needed to focus on the match for 90 minutes and extra time, and don’t watch the results or the time because we needed to be focused playing. If we scored the second goal? Better.
“But the second half, we started with one change with Boubacar Kamara, but then we needed the defence. They had chances, perhaps the best one is at the end. We needed defensive actions and we did it.”
Watkins: I wanted Villa PL record since I joined
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Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins admits he had been eyeing Aston Villa’s all-time Premier League scoring record since he joined the club
Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins to Sky Sports:
“I’ve had eyes on breaking that record since joining the club – you need to celebrate wins like that as it’s a great achievement.
“It’s massive – our away form hasn’t been great. We’ll be watching the game [Newcastle vs Chelsea] tomorrow. We need to make sure we win our last two games and it’s in our hands to do that.
“There are lots of teams pushing for a Champions League spot and it’s going to go down to the wire.”
Iraola: The rhythm was very slow
Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola to Sky Sports:
“We are a worse position than we were a couple of hours before but we have to keep fighting. Especially at the beginning the tempo was very slow, the first half there were not a lot of things happening but the things that did happen was for them.
“They managed better the game overall. The second half we improved, they were tired and we could find better positions and moments, especially when they were with 10 and with chances. But we couldn’t score.
“They defended very compact, it was very difficult to find spaces. The rhythm of the game was especially very slow, a lot of stops and not a lot of continuity.
“At the very end, when they were starting to tire, we found good transitions and situations, but it was very short this period. We wanted to open the game a lot earlier. We played the game they probably wanted to play.”