LAST UPDATE | 25 Apr 2021
Aston Villa 2-2 West Brom
KEINAN DAVIS PUSHED West Brom closer to the drop after his late leveller denied the Baggies a derby win at Aston Villa.
The striker’s injury-time goal – after Kyle Bartley’s mistake – earned Villa a 2-2 draw to stop Albion claiming another priceless victory.
Time is running out and the second-bottom Baggies are nine points from Premier League safety with five games left.
Tyrone Mings’ own goal looked like earning Sam Allardyce’s side a third win in four games after Matheus Pereira’s penalty had cancelled out Anwar El Ghazi’s spot-kick.
Despite the point, Villa’s season – which once threatened European qualification – is now fading into mid-table obscurity without injured skipper Jack Grealish and they have won just two of the 10 games he has missed.
Albion’s relegation looks inevitable but, should they go down, they will at least return to the Sky Bet Championship fighting after recovering from an early blow.
Villa hit the front after 20 seconds against Manchester City on Wednesday but it took them nine minutes to lead this time.
Ross Barkley was felled by Semi Ajayi’s clumsy challenge in the box and El Ghazi – who scored twice in the reverse fixture at The Hawthorns – sent Sam Johnstone the wrong way.
Pereira’s free-kick whistled narrowly over in response but after their morale-sapping defeat at Leicester in midweek Albion struggled to get going.
Boss Allardyce had targeted five wins from six games – starting against Villa – to save their Premier League skins and that looked fanciful until Albion were given a gift of a penalty after 23 minutes.
Quick feet from Callum Robinson teed up Ainsley Maitland-Niles and he needed no second invitation to go down after Ezri Konsa clipped his foot.
It was soft but Pereira levelled and four minutes later Okay Yokuslu flashed a header narrowly wide.
Johnstone beat away El Ghazi’s drive and Bertrand Traore’s effort drifted across goal as Villa sought a response.
But Albion had their tails up and Emi Martinez parried Maitland-Niles’ drive five minutes before the break after Pereira bamboozled Douglas Luiz with a cute backheel.
The forward was the Baggies’ best outlet and nearly grabbed a second after 43 minutes when his free-kick from the corner of the area bounced back off the bar.
Albion had threatened a second and, just two minutes after the restart, stunned Villa by taking the lead.
Konsa slipped when he tried to control Johnstone’s deep clearance which allowed Mbaye Diagne to collect the ball. The striker continued into the area and his shot was turned into his own net by Mings.
The goal sparked Villa back into life and Bartley deflected Barkley’s drive behind, Johnstone’s smart save kept Ahmed Elmohamady’s sharp volley out and Traore’s drive from a tight angle hit the outside of the post.
Villa were now dominant and Ollie Watkins wasted a fine opening with 20 minutes left when he shot too close to Johnstone after being put through.
Yet Albion nearly grabbed a third with 18 minutes left when Konsa headed Conor Gallagher’s corner against his own post before Martinez turned the ball over via the bar.
Three minutes later Martinez came to Villa’s rescue again when he turned Pereira’s excellent effort from 18 yards over.
Villa pressed for a late leveller and Davis struck the post with four minutes left before rescuing a point in stoppage time.
Matt Targett’s deep cross was headed down by Mings and Davis pounced from close range after Bartley failed to clear.
Wolves 0-4 Burnley
Chris Wood scored his first Premier League hat-trick as Burnley blew Wolves away with a dominant first-half performance at Molineux to take a giant step towards survival.
All of Wood’s goals in a 4-0 win came before half time during an opening 45 minutes where it was abundantly clear one team was driven by the hunger and desire of something to play for, and the other was not.
Wolves, who have known for much of the season that their fate would probably be mid-table obscurity, improved marginally in the second half in the sense that they only conceded one more goal when Ashley Westwood struck five minutes from time.
Sean Dyche’s team headed to the West Midlands in no immediate threat of relegation, despite three successive defeats, mostly due to Fulham’s inability to put any pressure on the teams above them.
They left with a nine-point cushion between themselves and the bottom three and it should be enough to ensure another season of Premier League football.
A mistake by Wily Boly allowed Burnley to take the lead after 15 minutes. Wood latched on to a pass that Boly failed to clear and turned Coady one way then the other down the right side of the penalty area before finding the far corner of the net with a powerful, low shot from an acute angle.
The New Zealander quickly doubled the lead six minutes later. Sloppy play by Adama Traore this time saw him give the ball away on the edge of his own penalty area, as Dwight McNeil intercepted his pass to Nelson Semedo.
McNeil rolled the ball across the face of goal where Wood was on hand to tap it home from close range.
Dyche had his team playing aggressive, front-foot football and Wolves were unable to cope. Burnley won yet another second ball and Charlie Taylor’s cross should have been put away by Matej Vydra but he spooned his shot over the crossbar from eight yards out.
Wolves were as sloppy and sluggish as Burnley were impressive and the hosts’ frustration boiled over seven minutes before half time.
Podence stayed down inside the penalty area after a slight push by Josh Brownhill. James Tarkowski tried to drag the striker up by his arm, sparking a melee involving both sets of players which saw Traore push Jack Cork in the face.
VAR took a look at the incident but only deemed Traore’s actions worthy of a yellow card. In the current climate, the Wolves winger could have had few complaints if the colour was red.
Wood headed Burnley’s third goal and completed his hat-trick a minute before half time, nodding home unmarked from four yards out following some more terrible defending from a McNeil corner.
Vydra rounded Rui Patricio to score what looked like a fourth goal right at the start of the second half, but VAR intervened and saved Wolves with a correct offside decision.
As good as the Clarets were going forward, defensively also they were outstanding and kept their opponents at arm’s length throughout.
Westwood completed the rout with five minutes remaining as Wood turned provider for his fierce shot from the edge of the box.
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