Football
Aston Villa Leave It Late To Beat Bottom Club Southampton Thanks To Three Second Half Goals
James is an experienced writer covering a wide range of sports, including Premier League and European football, Rugby Union, WWE and the NFL. Having studied English & Creative Writing at Plymouth University, James completed a master's degree in Digital & Social Media Marketing before pursuing a career in Journalism. He then graduated from News Associates in Manchester after finishing their NCTJ Postgraduate Diploma in Multimedia Sports Journalism. Since then, James spent time writing for GameRant before ing Reach PLC, where he featured regularly in publications such as the Daily Mirror, Football.LDN, Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo, as well as dozens of local titles. Now at SportsCasting, James provides expert analysis and detailed research features, as well as covering breaking news stories.
Get to know James Chittick betterPublished12 Apr 2025
Watch Southampton Vs Aston Villa highlights as three late goals were enough to secure victory for Villa in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
Aston Villa maintained their bid for back-to-back Champions League qualification with a win against bottom club Southampton – despite two second-half penalty misses by Marco Asensio.
It took more than 70 minutes for Villa to find a way through an unusually stubborn Southampton defence.
But eventually, they led through Ollie Watkins, who fired home after an superb ball from Youri Tielemans.
Villa nearly doubled their lead just three minutes later, but Saints keeper Aaron Ramsdale denied Asensio from the spot following Jan Bednarek’s poor challenge on Watkins.
But it wasn’t long before Villa had their second, with Donyell Malen scoring to make it comfortable for the visitors.
Ramsdale saved a second Asensio penalty in stoppage time, only for John McGinn’s rebound to put the icing on what was eventually a comfortable win for Aston Villa.
Southampton created next to nothing, with Cameron Archer’s tame effort straight at Emi Martinez their only decent chance.
Watch: Southampton Vs Aston Villa Highlights
Villas’ third league win on the bounce lifts them to fifth in the table ahead of Chelsea and Newcastle’s games on Sunday.
Unai Emery’s side will need to recover quickly, though. They host Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League quarter-final second leg at Villa Park on Tuesday, and will have it all to do with a 3-1 deficit heading into the match.
Southampton, meanwhile, looked better defensively for 70 minutes, but barely fired a shot in attack once again.
Defeat for the Saints means they remain one point below Derby County’s record for the worst Premier League team of all time.
Their best chance of escaping that unwanted record will likely come on Saturday, 3 May, when the travel to fellow basement-dwellers Leicester City – who had lost nine on the bounce before this weekend’s 2-2 draw at Brighton.