Aston Villa manager Unai Emery walked down the side of the pitch at full-time with a face like thunder.
It could have been the defeat, but you expect he will be mulling over what to say about the VAR decision which denied Villa at least a point.
Advertisement
A four-minute delay to disallow Tammy Abraham’s goal had Villa Park singing anti-Premier League and VAR songs, while the debate will rage over whether going back 19 seconds to the start of the move was correct.
There is no denying, though, that Villa suffered back-to-back home league defeats for the first time since February 2024 when they lost to Newcastle and Manchester United.
This time – unlike Thursday’s win from 2-0 down against Red Bull Salzburg – there was no comeback despite an expected goals (xG) of 1.98, compared to Brentford‘s 0.53.
Advertisement
Kelleher did not have a serious stop to make and Villa failed to open up a Brentford team who played more than half the game with 10 men.
It was attack versus defence in the second half, but Villa were not good enough to find a way through Brentford and failed to capitalise on the gift of Kevin Schade’s red card.
Emery has always played Villa’s title chances down and, after losing at home to Everton and Brentford, they have fallen further behind Arsenal.
