Aston Villa 2 Manchester United 1: Morgan Rogers scores superb double

This was just their second win in the Premier League over the Red Devils at home since 1995 and ensured they will spend Christmas just three points off the top of the table.

Come New Year’s Day, Unai Emery’s team could be at the summit depending on the outcome of the mammoth, back-to-back matches with Chelsea and Arsenal to come.

They will provide the toughest tests of Villa’s season so far but with their team and Morgan Rogers in this kind of form, it would take a brave person to bet against them. 

Right now, it feels like anything is possible.

This was Villa’s 10th win in a row in all competitions, the first time they have achieved the feat as a top-flight club since 1914.

Their hero, for the second Sunday running, was Morgan Rogers, who added another pair of excellent goals to his collection.

The England international fired Villa ahead just before the break and then, after Matheus Cunha had pounced on a mistake from Matty Cash to deliver an instant response, hit the winner just before the hour mark with another superb finish.

Villa were made to work hard for their win by an improving United team, who may well have taken a point had Cunha not been guilty of a dreadful miss, heading wide with the goal gaping.

Emi Martinez, back in the team and facing the team he was eager to join in the summer, also denied Benjamino Sesko.

Yet Emery’s team, as they have done most weekends during his reign and in the past three months in particular, found a way to victory.

This was their 11th win in 12 league matches and while their sights should certainly be set on Arsenal and Manchester City, the two teams above them in the table, Villa will also head to Chelsea with a seven-point advantage over the London club.

United had the first effort of the match when Cunha curled just wide from outside the box but it was Villa who then exerted serious pressure on the visiting goal.

Ollie Watkins might have done better after Rogers sent him running in behind Lenny Yoro but the striker’s decision to chop inside, rather than take on a left-footed shot, proved the wrong move as Ayden Heaven arrived to snuff out the chance.

The same defender then thwarted Watkins in even more dramatic fashion soon after. Amadou Onana picked out the run of John McGinn, who saw a low, curling effort saved by Senne Lammens. The ball popped up invitingly for Watkins but Heaven threw himself in the way of the shot.

Villa then went close again as United failed to deal with the corner. Ian Maatsen hammered the ball back across the face of goal and Rogers, with a drag-back finish, sent it whistling past the post from inside the six-yard box.

The home side were unable to maintain the pressure and the next big chances fell to United as the visitors began to take control of midfield. 

A lofted Bruno Fernandes pass found its way past both Ezri Konsa and Victor Lindelof to leave Sesko one-on-one with Martinez but the striker sent his shot against the legs of the onrushing keeper.

Sesko then found himself in on goal again from a Cunha through ball but a heavy first touch as he tried to round Martinez saw the chance go begging, with the keeper taking a knee in the head from Cash which briefly saw Marco Bizot warming up as Villa’s medical team carried out a concussion check.

Martinez was needed again to keep out a long-range Cunha drive as United continued to look the more likely scorers.

But once again Villa and Rogers were able to find the moment of magic to take the lead. The England international had already given United a warning when he drove inside before sending a weak shot straight at Lammens. 

With the clock ticking toward stoppage time he got another chance after controlling McGinn’s pass and just about keeping the ball in play. Driving inside Yoro, he curled a perfectly placed shot inside the far post with Lammens rooted to the spot. Villa Park erupted.

Within three minutes the celebrations were abruptly halted as Villa, usually such ruthless frontrunners, gifted United parity.

Cash dawdled when he should have cleared and Patrick Dorgu sent the ball into the path of Cunha, who finished emphatically beyond Martinez.

United unquestionably went into half-time the happier but they suffered a blow when Fernandes, who appeared to be struggling with a hamstring problem, did not re-emerge for the second half.He was replaced by Lisandro Martinez who had his countryman and namesake in the Villa goal briefly worried with a driven shot which flew a yard or so wide of the post.

Villa desperately needed a spark and Rogers, once again, was the man to provide it.

Watkins, enduring something of a frustrating day, beat Heaven to Tielemans’ cross and the ball fell perfectly for Rogers, who lifted a shot over the hand of Lammens and into the far corner.

A crowd which had been subdued for much of the afternoon was now bouncing but Villa came close to letting United immediately back into the match.

This time there was redemption for Cash, who blocked Dorgu’s close-range follow-up after Martinez had only been able to parry Dalot’s awkward, dipping shot.

Then came a moment of huge fortune for the home side as Cunha somehow failed to net his second equaliser of the game, heading Dorgu’s cross wide from inside the six-yard box.

Villa looked far from secure. A Dalot long throw into the box caused panic as Lindelof’s attempted clearance hit Tielemans before the ball was finally scrambled clear.

Mason Mount then drilled a stoppage time free-kick over the bar but Villa were not to be denied.

Villa (4-2-3-1): Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen (Digne 75), Onana (Buendia 84), Kamara, McGinn (Guessand 84), Tielemans, Rogers, Watkins (Malen 75) Subs not used: Garcia, Routh, Bogarde, Hemmings, Buendia, Guessand, Bizot (gk).

Man Utd (3-4-2-1): Lammens, Yoro (Lacey 84), Heaven, Shaw, Dalot, Ugarte (Zirkzee 73), Fernandes (Martinez HT), Dorgu, Cunha, Mount, Sesko (Fletcher 73) Subs not used: Malacia, Fredicson, Mantato, Heaton (gk), Bayinder (gk).