Goodnightpublished at 20:30 Greenwich Mean Time 4 January
Thanks for joining us today. Match of the Day is on BBC One at 22:20 GMT. We'll be back for two Premier League games tomorrow including the big one at Anfield.
Leon Bailey scored a late winner as Aston Villa condemned Leicester to a fifth straight Premier League defeat.
The Jamaica forward made a late run into the box to tap home substitute Ian Maatsen's low cross in the 78th minute for his first goal of the season.
It had looked like Ruud van Nistelrooy's visitors would end their losing run after Stephy Mavididi equalised Villa's opener in the 64th minute, finishing a rebound after Emiliano Martinez's fine save from a close-range Jamie Vardy shot.
Unai Emery's Villa led after a sumptuous 58th-minute strike from Ross Barkley from the edge of the box for his third league goal of the campaign.
At 2-1, Bailey came within inches of wrapping up the points after his driving run ended in a strike that rebounded off the underside of the bar before Ollie Watkins smashed his rebound well over.
There was a blow for Villa as captain John McGinn limped off with a hamstring injury in the first half and Emery does not know how long he will be out.
"It is his hamstring. He could be out for two, three, four, five weeks, I don't know," Emery said.
In a first half lacking any excitement, Villa were possibly unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty after Boubacar Kamara went to ground in the box following a challenge from Mavididi.
The video assistant referee deemed it a fair challenge, despite there being obvious contact.
With the scores level, Villa looked short of ideas, with striker Jhon Duran suspended, leading Emery to look to his bench for inspiration.
The Spanish manager sent on Dutch wing-back Maatsen and it was his bursting run down the left that provided the key moment, as he sent in a pinpoint low cross for Bailey's winner.
Villa remain eighth in the table, just four points behind Chelsea in fourth while Leicester are second from bottom, two points from safety.
How do Villa follow up a year as successful as 2024, when they qualified for the Champions League for the first time? Well, three points in their first game of 2025 is a decent start.
At times, it looked like it might only be one point after a dismal first half but Emery's side produced when they needed it most to end a winless run of two games.
With fourth-placed Chelsea dropping points for a third game on the spin, Villa are only four points off a Champions League place.
It was far from Villa's best performance under Emery - and they clearly missed Pau Torres at the back, with the Spaniard out for two months with a broken foot.
They will need to perform better than this to take anything from their next match - an away trip to Everton.
Van Nistelrooy changed the set-up of his Leicester side after the amount of chances the Foxes conceded in his opening two games in charge.
However, the tactical switch has also nullified their attack and coincided with the five-match losing run.
Leicester's attacking press was nowhere to be seen in the first half and they managed just two shots on target in the game.
After beating West Ham 3-1 and drawing 2-2 with Brighton in Van Nistelrooy's first two matches, Saturday's goal was only the second Leicester have scored in five games.
In that time they have conceded 14 times.
In Leicester's only half chance of the first half, Bilal el Khannouss latched on to a loose Matty Cash header and fired a strike high into the Villa fans - summing up the Foxes attacking quality.
Van Nistelrooy is obviously searching for answers as he attempts to save his side from relegation but can Leicester earn enough points with so few attacking chances?
After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.
Position | Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals For | Goals Against | Goal Difference | Points | Form, Last 6 games, Oldest first |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 18 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 45 | 17 | 28 | 45 |
| |
2 | 20 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 39 | 18 | 21 | 40 |
| |
3 | 19 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 26 | 19 | 7 | 37 |
| |
4 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 39 | 24 | 15 | 36 |
| |
5 | 20 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 34 | 22 | 12 | 35 |
| |
6 | 20 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 36 | 27 | 9 | 34 |
| |
7 | 20 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 30 | 23 | 7 | 33 |
| |
8 | 20 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 30 | 32 | -2 | 32 |
| |
9 | 19 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 28 | 25 | 3 | 29 |
| |
10 | 20 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 30 | 29 | 1 | 28 |
| |
11 | 20 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 38 | 35 | 3 | 27 |
| |
12 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 42 | 30 | 12 | 24 |
| |
13 | 20 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 24 | 39 | -15 | 23 |
| |
14 | 19 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 21 | 26 | -5 | 22 |
| |
15 | 20 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 21 | 28 | -7 | 21 |
| |
16 | 19 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 15 | 25 | -10 | 17 |
| |
17 | 19 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 31 | 42 | -11 | 16 |
| |
18 | 19 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 18 | 33 | -15 | 15 |
| |
19 | 20 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 23 | 44 | -21 | 14 |
| |
20 | 20 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 12 | 44 | -32 | 6 |
|
Manager: Unai Emery
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: Ruud van Nistelrooij
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: Unai Emery
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: Ruud van Nistelrooij
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Premier League
All competitions
All competitions
All competitions
Following their 2-1 win at the King Power Stadium in August, Aston Villa are looking to complete their first league double over Leicester since 2003-04.
Leicester have won three of their last four Premier League away games against Aston Villa (L1), beating them 4-2 in their last such visit in February 2023. They’d only won two of their first 10 at Villa Park in the competition (D5 L3).
Both teams have scored in 13 of the 14 Premier League meetings between Aston Villa and Leicester at Villa Park, with the only exception being a 2-0 win for Leicester in December 2001.
When playing their first league game of a calendar year at home, Aston Villa have lost just one of their last 13 such matches (W6 D6), going down 2-0 against Swansea in 2012. This is the first time Villa are kicking off a year with a home match since 2019 (2-2 vs QPR in the Championship).
Leicester have only lost their opening league match in two of the last 16 calendar years (W10 D4), though these two defeats have come in their last two as a Premier League side (2-3 v Tottenham in 2022, 0-1 v Fulham in 2023).
Since losing their opening home Premier League game of this season against Arsenal, Aston Villa are unbeaten in their last nine at Villa Park (W5 D4). The Villans have scored 2+ goals in 12 of their last 17 on home soil.
Leicester have lost each of their last four Premier League games. They last lost more consecutively in August/September 2022 (6), while they last did so while conceding 2+ goals each time in September/October 2003 (5).
Ollie Watkins has been involved in 97 goals in 165 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa (67 goals, 30 assists). Watkins both scored and assisted in a Premier League game for the 10th time in their 2-2 draw with Brighton, the most of any Villa player in the competition.
In Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw with Brighton, Leon Bailey completed nine dribbles, created three chances and had seven shots, the first player to produce all of those numbers in a Premier League match since November 2014, when Alexis Sánchez did so for Arsenal against Burnley.
Having scored five goals in his first six Premier League appearances against Aston Villa, Leicester captain Jamie Vardy hasn’t scored in any of his last six against the Villans in the competition.