Unai Emery got his Aston Villa reign off to a fine start today as the club ended their long unsuccessful run against Manchester United at Villa Park.
The former Arsenal manager began his spell at Villa officially today and he steered them to an impressive 3-1 victory over Manchester United.
The hosts had not beaten United at Villa Park in the Premier League since 1995, but were 2-0 up after 11 minutes in this game following a brilliant start.
Leon Bailey opened the scoring in the seventh minute when he broke through and hit a low shot past David de Gea.
It was 2-0 just three minutes later when Lucas Digne curled in a brilliant free-kick from 25 yards out.
Manchester United, captained by Cristiano Ronaldo, looked beaten so early and only threatened Villa midway through the first half, when Alejandro Garnacho’s shot was saved by Emiliano Martinez.
United needed a huge slice of fortune to get a goal back before half-time as Luke Shaw’s shot took a big deflection off Jacob Ramsey to end up in the back of the net.
Ramsey then made up for his own goal after the break when he latched onto Ollie Watkins’ ball and powered a shot beyond De Gea.
The win moved Aston Villa up to 13th in the table, three points above the relegation zone, while Manchester United remain fifth.
At St Mary’s Stadium, Newcastle United continued their impressive form with a 4-1 win over Southampton, who brought Super Eagles midfielder Joe Aribo on in the second half.
Miguel Almiron, Joe Willock, Chris Wood and Bruno Guimaraes scored for the visitors as they climbed up to third in the table.
Also today at the London Stadium, visitors Crystal Palace defeated West Ham 2-1.
Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, both of whom are eligible to play for Nigeria, were involved in Palace’s goals.
While Eze set up Wilfred Zaha for Palace’s first goal, Olise scored the winning goal in the fourth minute of injury time with virtually the last kick of the match as Patrick Vieria’s side moved up to 10th spot.
