Aston Villa survived the most extraordinary collapse of their season to beat Sunderland 4-3 at Villa Park on Sunday, with substitute Tammy Abraham flicking home a winner in the 93rd minute just moments after Emiliano Martinez had denied Sunderland a goal that would have completed one of the great comebacks in recent Premier League memory.
Villa appeared to be in total control at 3-1 up when they went to sleep completely with four minutes to play, allowing Sunderland substitutes Trai Hume and Wilson Isidor to score within 58 seconds of each other and transform the mood inside the ground from quiet satisfaction to borderline panic.
Habib Diarra then had the chance to win it for the visitors but dallied over a dink when through on goal, and Martinez made the save before Villa broke upfield and Abraham poked home from Lucas Digne’s cross.
The earlier stages of the game had played out in a far more orderly fashion for Unai Emery’s side. Ollie Watkins headed Villa into an early lead after just two minutes, his 101st goal for the club, though Chris Rigg levelled with a stunning first Premier League goal just seven minutes later. Rigg’s curling effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the box demonstrated why the young midfielder is considered one of the most exciting teenagers in English football.
Watkins responded with his second goal before half-time, heading in from close range after Ian Maatsen delivered from the left, and Morgan Rogers added a third almost immediately after the interval with a composed finish on the counter-attack. At that point, the game appeared over as a contest, and thoughts in the stands turned to Villa’s other priorities in what has become a packed schedule.
The drama that followed came entirely from Sunderland’s refusal to accept their fate. Regio Le Fee slid a sublime pass through the Villa defence for Isidor’s equaliser, and seconds later the Portuguese midfielder was at it again as Villa went from two goals ahead to drawing in the space of a minute. It was a capitulation that Emery will not want to see replicated, particularly with European and league commitments converging.
Villa now sit in fourth place with 58 points and a ten-point buffer over sixth-placed Chelsea in the race for the top five. The win all but secures Champions League football next season, which represents a considerable achievement for a club that only returned to the top flight’s upper echelons relatively recently. That Emery has also guided them to the Europa League semi-finals simultaneously speaks to the depth and quality of his squad.
For Sunderland, who have 46 points and sit comfortably in mid-table as a promoted side, the performance was one to be proud of even in defeat. Their supporters made the journey to Birmingham expecting little and came within a Martinez save of stealing a historic result. Regio Le Fee and Chris Rigg are now operating at a level that will attract significant attention from larger clubs in the summer.