Buendía sets up Villa rout while Martínez thrives under fire

After Emiliano Martínez’s mistake allowed Mohamed Salah to open the scoring for Liverpool at Anfield last weekend, there was a statistic doing the rounds that only three players had made more errors leading to Premier League goals than the seven made by the Argentinian since he signed for Aston Villa five years ago. The life of a goalkeeper and all that.

- Ben Fisher

But Martínez tends to thrive when in the line of fire and here he pulled off two brilliant saves, including one to deny Antoine Semenyo from the penalty spot. At that point Bournemouth were pushing to make a comfortable afternoon a little more awkward, before the substitutes Ross Barkley and Donyell Malen added their names to the scoresheet and lift Villa above Bournemouth in the table. Villa began with five winless games but have now won five of their past six league matches.

Villa’s first-half goals were both scored within a couple of yards of the same patch of Villa Park turf, Emiliano Buendía lifting a wonderful free-kick over the Bournemouth wall and past Djordje Petrovic in the visitors' goal and 12 minutes later Amadou Onana powering a low, precise shot inside the near post. Villa established a two-goal cushion at the interval but the second half always felt dangerous given Bournemouth under Andoni Iraola, with nothing to lose, would invariably attack but Villa neutralised their threat.