Leicester City 0-1 Aston Villa: Late Ross Barkley winner maintains perfect start

Ross Barkley's stunning stoppage-time winner fired Aston Villa up to second in the Premier League as they maintained their perfect start to the season with a 1-0 victory at Leicester.

Villa looked to be suffering a hangover from their 7-2 victory over Liverpool as their 100 per cent record was moments away from ending at the King Power Stadium in what would have been the first goalless draw of the new Premier League season.

But Barkley lashed an unstoppable long-range effort past Kasper Schmeichel in the first minute of injury-time to seal a fourth straight win for Dean Smith's side that confirms the club's best start to a campaign in 90 years and means Villa are the only club in England to win all their games this season.

Villa, who are unbeaten in eight Premier League games, climb up to second and are now just a point off leaders Everton, who have played a game more, while injury-hit Leicester remain fourth after suffering back-to-back home defeats for the first time since 2017.

How Barkley's bolt kept Villa perfect

Leicester needed a response after surrendering their perfect start to West Ham before the international break and made all of the early running as Villa took their time to settle.

The lively Timothy Castagne drew Emiliano Martinez into action with a shot from an acute angle on 22 minutes, and the Villa stopper was called upon again to prevent Kelechi Iheanacho's curled effort from opening the scoring soon after.

Captain Jack Grealish's influence increased with each passing minute and he was at the heart of Villa's best moment in the first half, but Trezeguet was unable to convert his cut-back while under pressure from James Justin.

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The visitors carried that momentum into the second half, but Ezri Konsa spurned a gilt-edged opportunity to make the breakthrough when he headed Grealish's corner wide within nine minutes of the restart.

Martinez saved a deflected Youri Tielemans shot before efforts from Douglas Luiz and Ollie Watkins were given the same treatment up the other end by Schmeichel.

Leicester introduced James Maddison and forgotten-man Islam Slimani - who made his first appearance for the club since January 2018 - in a bid to find a late winner, and the Algerian flashed a header over the target on 80 minutes.

Villa responded with their first change as Bertrand Traore entered the fray, and he could have won the game in the final minute with a header that was straight at Schmeichel.

But, as the seconds ticked away, a moment of brilliance from Barkley settled the contest as his 25-yard drive nestled in the bottom corner to confirm a start to a season Villa have been dreaming of for almost a century.

What the managers said…

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Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers: "I thought we were unfortunate to lose a very close game. We didn't work the keeper as much as we would have liked.

"The second half became a bit of a basketball game, we got too stretched and Ross Barkley finished really well. It's a disappointing result but, with the players we had available, a good effort from them all."

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Aston Villa manager Dean Smith: "It was a hard-working performance from everybody. It was a game where each team cancelled each other out a bit, but there were bits of quality and the moment at the end won it.

"We had the opportunity during lockdown to put things right defensively, we did that in Project Restart and now at the start of this season. We feel like we've added some quality to the team and the togetherness the players are showing is tremendous.

"Starting as well as we have is a great platform. We've managed to get four wins on the spin, which is an amazing achievement from the players."

Opta stats: Villa's stunning start

• Aston Villa have won their opening four games of a league season for the first time since the 1930-31 campaign, when they went on to finish second in the top-flight.
• Leicester have suffered consecutive Premier League home defeats without scoring for the first time since February 2017.
• Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers suffered his first defeat against Aston Villa in the Premier League since September 2014 (0-1 in charge of Liverpool), having won each of his previous four meetings with them before this game.
• Ross Barkley has scored in each of his two Premier League appearances for Aston Villa (2 goals), as many as he managed in his last 42 for Chelsea before moving to Villa Park.
• Since the start of last season, Aston Villa's Jack Grealish has won 182 fouls in the Premier League (including five in this game) - the most of any player in the competition.

What's next?

Leicester host Zorya Luhansk in the Europa League on Thursday at 8pm, before travelling to Arsenal on Super Sunday at 7.15pm - live on Sky Sports Premier League. Aston Villa host Leeds in the Premier League on Friday at 8pm.

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