To get the ball up and over the wall and then in is some feat by Ward-Prowse. Brilliant.

Surely handball by Matty Cash?! His outstretched hand prevents a cross-field ball reaching Che Adams. He is fortunate that he is just outside the area, but still gets a yellow.

Ward-Prowse has the ball. He fancies another birthday goal.

It has been a very stop-start game. And now that Southampton are two goals up they'll probably be more than happy for it to remain so.

Signs of frustration now in the Villa players, with Matty Cash going in hard on Ward-Prowse. No wonder they're feeling tense. Everything went their way for four games and now it's all going wrong.

Daddy M&M: Ward-Prowse is a nightmare for keepers when it comes to set-pieces, he's insane.

Gbadero T'Oluwalope: Is the Aston Villa party coming to an end already?

Martin: Table looking like we are in the early 80's

Barkley's corner is deep and headed into the six yard box by a Villa head for Oli Watkins, who turns and sees his shot blocked by Alex McCarthy. Flag was up, though.

Grealish is trying to make things happen with another of those driving runs. His low cross is blocked behind. Was it with a hand? Nope. VAR says so.

Dave Payn: Jimmy Greaves had a number of memorable debuts, scoring in every single one.

Sean Thomas: Best debut ever you ask? May I refer you to Freddie Eastwood's hat-trick to send Southend top of the table. His first goal came 7.7 seconds into his debut. 2004, it seems an eternity ago now!

Jamie Pragnell: You cannot talk about debuts and not mention Rickie Lambert's first game for England....scoring with his first touch from a corner against Scotland at Wembley in 2013!

So that's a booking, an assist and now a goal for Ward-Prowse this afternoon. Eventful.

He has now scored seven direct free-kick goals for Southampton in the Premier League, equalling Matt Le Tissier as the player with the most for the club in the competition.

Not a bad player to be sat alongside.

We're just trading free-kicks at the moment.

Oli Watkins is knocked to the turf to give Villa a chance to deliver into the box. Barkley does just that but it is headed away.

Another free-kick in a dangerous spot. Walcott is fouled by Douglas Luiz, central and just outside the D. This is Ward-Prowse territory...

Villa looks to fashion a goal of their own from a wide free-kick, but Ross Barkley is unable to make it count, whipping his effort straight into the gloves of Alex McCarthy.

Yep, Traore is leaving us. He looked to pull something off the ball. He is replaced by Trezeguet - the man whose place he took from the start this afternoon.

And now Bertrand Traore is down. He kicks the ball straight out of play before dropping to the turf. Be a real shame for him if his full Villa debut is ending after just 28 minutes.

They can have no complaints about the goal itself, but Villa may have a few complaints about the lead up to it, which looked to include a possible foul throw from Kyle Walker-Peters. Looking at replays, it was borderline.

The good news for Southampton and Bednarek is that is OK to carry on following his awkward landing.

The free-kick almost yields an equaliser as Bertrand Traore's effort is deflected wide.

The resulting corner comes to nothing.

Postpublished at 24 mins

24 mins

Aston Villa 0-1 Southampton

Oh, that is nasty. Jan Bednarek goes up for a header and falls over the top of the man he is challenging before landing really awkwardly on his head. That could be the end of the game for him.

To make matters worse, Villa have a free-kick in a dangerous spot wide left.