Tammy Abraham had waited nearly seven years since his previous Aston Villa goal, but on his return to his old loan club it took a four-minute VAR inquisition, and a 19-second rewind of the video tape, to wipe out a potential equaliser and, surely, to end Unai Emery’s team’s involvement in the Premier League title race once and for all.
The Villa head coach has been saying as much all season but now, after dropping three points against the ten men of Brentford, his team find themselves seven points behind Arsenal, the leaders, and with rivals closing fast behind in the chase for Champions League places.
Meanwhile Brentford, reduced to ten men after Kevin Schade’s sending-off just before half-time, held on, thanks to the goal scored by Dango Ouattara soon after the red card, and can themselves start entertaining hopes of qualifying for Europe.
The consolation for Emery is that he can at least look at a productive transfer window in which he has brought Abraham, Douglas Luiz and Leon Bailey back to the club, with the first two of that trio making their second “debuts” here, although it was an occasion that England international Abraham will remember with only qualified fondness.
Abraham, who scored 26 goals in 40 appearances in his first stint for Villa, looked to have come back with a bang, only for his goal to be ruled out by VAR
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He thought he had equalised three minutes into the second half, reacting quickly to convert Jadon Sancho’s saved shot, only for a lengthy VAR delay to decide the move had started with Bailey losing the ball when it had gone out of play at the opposite end of the field.
VAR eventually found an angle to show the ball had gone out but the length of delay, plus the fact that the incident was so far back in the move — 19 seconds, according to one calculation — drew a predictable response from Villa supporters. Had Brentford scrambled in a second goal from the long throw-in that eventually followed, and which sparked some shaky goalkeeping from Emiliano Martínez, then the mood might have turned even uglier.
Ouattara’s strike fired Brentford into seventh in the Premier League
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“For me, it’s not fair,” Emery said. “My explanation is because it is an action after a long time, it is a different action. If the assistant referee didn’t see it, we must continue play. VAR must not be asking the referee [to overturn the goal] in this situation. So, we accept it, but it’s not fair.”
Instead the anger, of fans and Emery, made way for frustration as Villa camped in the final 18 yards of the pitch and tried to break down a brilliantly organised defence.
Abraham almost turned in an Ian Maatsen cross, Matty Cash shot high and wide, before keeping a 66th-minute effort down and forcing Caoimhin Kelleher into a strong save. The keeper did well to keep out a Luiz effort at full stretch.
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The pressure mounted, especially when the board appeared announcing ten added minutes at the end. Morgan Rogers showed neat footwork to create space, eventually forcing Kelleher into a smart diving save, and little-used substitute Harvey Elliott found Bailey with a fantastic pass, although the winger shot over and the ten men held on.
Schade was shown a straight red card three minutes before the interval, after becoming entangled with Cash and deliberately kicking him in the groin area as he rose to his feet.
“He’s relieved,” Keith Andrews, the Brentford head coach, said. “And very grateful to his team-mates and the shift they put in. He tested us, going down to ten men, but we’re a young group, always developing, growing, and they’re human beings. They’re going to make mistakes. Kevin knows that and will learn from that.”
It was a rush of blood, but one that had been brewing, with the pair engaged in a feisty exchange down Brentford’s left from kick-off, although if Villa thought his departure would shift the balance in their favour, they were in for a rude awakening.
It came in the first minute of added time from a long pass by the excellent Jordan Henderson, which freed Ouattara and Brentford’s centre forward Igor Thiago.
Ouattara’s first effort was blocked by Pau Torres and it looked inevitable that the Brentford man would attempt to square the ricochet for Thiago, who until that point had touched the ball only eight times. He would not get the chance for a ninth. Ouattara simply controlled the rebound before lashing in an unstoppable shot from a difficult angle.
It was a stunning development, especially coming so soon after the red card, because Villa had looked far from sharp to that point.
Abraham, scorer of 25 league goals during his loan season with Villa in 2018-19, which helped them to win promotion to the Premier League, was denied by Kelleher’s outstretched body after being played clean through by Rogers after 15 minutes.
Ezri Konsa also missed a glorious opening, volleying over Luiz’s free kick just after the half-hour, but, aside from a stoppage-time Abraham shot that was deflected behind, there was little sign of Villa unduly troubling their visitors, whether with 11 or ten.
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): E Martínez — M Cash, E Konsa, P Torres, I Maatsen — L Bogarde (L Bailey 46), D Luiz — J Sancho (H Elliott 77), M Rogers, E Buendía — T Abraham.
Brentford (4-2-3-1): C Kelleher — M Kayode, K Ajer, S van den Berg, R Henry (A Hickey 84) — J Henderson (N Collins 59), V Janelt — D Ouattara (Y Yarmoliuk 60), M Jensen (K Lewis-Potter 76), K Schade — I Thiago. Booked Ajer, Kayode, Janelt. Sent off Schade.