Leon Bailey is emerging as an unsung hero in Aston Villa’s chase for the top four

It may not quite be the assist of the season, but it was certainly the ball of the match. Jittery, nervous and behind to a mischievous AFC Bournemouth, with half-time beckoning Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey collected the ball inside his own half. Bailey strode forwards and unleashed a glorious through ball which cut out the visiting defence and found Morgan Rogers on the left touchline. Rogers cut inside and walloped the equaliser past a startled Neto.

From there, Villa assumed control. Two further goals followed, the clinching third after Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins’ ping-pong one-two ended with Watkins rounding Neto and rolling the ball across the goal for Bailey to tap in from point-blank range.

Villa had their 20th victory of the season, just one behind their Premier League record of 1992-93. More pertinently in the race for fourth place, they are now six points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur who have two games in hand. Should Villa defeat Chelsea on Saturday evening, Spurs will kick off against Arsenal on Sunday nine points adrift of the second city’s first team. For Villa, this was the right performance at the right moment.

Ominously for Villa, the work of head coach Unai Emery has been attracting admiring glances from Europe’s elite. Former Bayern Munich stalwart Lothar Matthaus suggested the vacant manager’s post at the Allianz Arena should be filled by Emery: ‘I would get Unai Emery from Aston Villa. He’s doing a great job there.”

Emery responded “I am focused here 100 per cent,” before a Villa official shut down further questioning.

“Today was fantastic,” continued Emery. “We didn’t take three points in our last home game with Brentford. We analysed why and we can be proud of our work, our consistency and our fight.”

Bailey was withdrawn in the 87th minute, to a standing ovation, but, as if to confirm that the Jamaican often flies under even the Holte End’s radar, the home crowd chanted Watkins’s name. Bailey hadn’t started in Lille on Thursday. Nor had he begun the victory at Arsenal last time out in the league, when he replaced Moussa Diaby and scored Villa’s first. Even so, the man who has now scored 14 goals in all competitions was making just his 16th league start of the season.

“We certainly appreciate him,” said Emery of the player who was awarded an extended contract in February. “He’s having a fantastic season and he’s responded to our demands for more defensive commitment.”

Bailey was a game-changing revelation, whether giving Lloyd Kelly the runaround on the right, even when Villa were struggling before and immediately after Dominic Solanke’s penalty put Bournemouth ahead after Matty Cash had felled Justin Kluivert. But, as his assist showed, Bailey is more than a wideman. Despite deploying a front three, Villa’s shape was often narrow, so Bailey – benefitting from the widescreen vision of John McGinn behind him – drifted inside, where Bournemouth never came to grips with his penchant for a swiftly delivered, pinpoint through ball.

Yet, the Holte End were right to laud Watkins too. His two assists took him to 12 in the league this season, more than any other player, while his 19 goals have been pivotal to Villa’s renaissance. He too benefitted from a team-mate’s endeavour since Diaby’s more central attacking role allowed Watkins to prowl up and down the inside channels at will.

Andoni Iraola, the Bournemouth manager admitted, that his side couldn’t cope with the pace and vision of Villa’s frontmen and that yellow cards for Adam Smith and Marcos Senesi facilitated both defenders’ early withdrawal. “Every decision could have meant a second yellow,” he explained. “Their forwards really make a difference. Watkins is a complete player in how he attacks both defenders and the space around them.”

“Ollie is very demanding,” smiled Emery. “Every day in training he wants more and more and more.”

How Villa needed the power, industry and quality offered by their front three. Villa Park was fervid before kick off. Outside, former manager John Gregory channelled his inner Bruce Springsteen by playing guitar with a band in the fanzone. Inside, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was serenaded as “the world’s number one” and there was the unmistakable sense of what could be. But when Solanke ignored the howls of the Holte End and kept his nerve to fire past Martinez, there was trouble at this particular mill until Rogers’s Bailey-spawned equaliser.

Diaby settled most of the jitters when he calmly tapped in Watkins’s exquisite low cross for Villa’s second. From there, there would only be one winner.