Aston Villa claims away victory at Leicester
Aston Villa held on to secure a second Premier League victory of the season, winning 2-1 away at Leicester City courtesy of goals from Amadou Onana and Jhon Duran.
Leicester, which has only managed to collect one point from its opening three Premier League fixtures, faced an Unai Emery side that was in no mood to be charitable at King Power Stadium.
The visitors were on top for much of this encounter and opened their account with a well-worked free-kick routine that resulted in a second goal of the campaign for midfielder Onana after 28 minutes.
Villa doubled its lead after the break when Duran made an immediate impact from the bench, heading in beautifully from Lucas Digne’s centre, but Steve Cooper’s men were not done yet and a sub of their own, Facundo Buonanotte, slammed in from close range to set up a nervy finish.
Leicester pushed for an equaliser but Villa secured a hard-fought win that sees it move up to sixth position ahead of the international break, with the Foxes still waiting for a first win since promotion.
Emery praised Duran’s attitude after watching his striker score again.
Duran was the subject of heavy interest during the transfer window, with both West Ham United and Chelsea reported to be interested in signing the Colombian.
But the 20-year-old remained at the club and Emery reserved praise for Duran after the victory at the Foxes.
"He is focused, I didn't need to speak a lot about his future [during the window]," the Spaniard said.
"He is focused here. He has trained very well and is playing very well, doing the work we planned. He is scoring goals. Fantastic."
Emery also was pleased with the performance of right back Lamare Bogarde. The 20 year-old made his first Premier League start after Matty Cash’s injury last week.
“He played being comfortable”, Emery said.
“When we use different young players, when we will need them they must be ready. Bogarde, he has qualities to play there [right-back] and to do well. He played well."
Leicester boss Cooper did not believe the result was a fair one for his side.
"I thought we looked a good team at times today. We definitely didn’t deserve to lose the game," he said.
"For the first goal, we need to own the set play, but it should never have been a free-kick.
"In the three games we’ve seen, we’ve seen more than enough in the performances to feel like we’re going to be OK [in the Premier League]."