Leicester City 1-2 Aston Villa: Amadou Onana and Jhon Duran secure win for Unai Emery's side after Jamie Vardy is denied a goal following an accidental assist by the referee
- Amadou Onana and Jhon Duran scored the goals as Aston Villa beat Leicester
- Facundo Buonanotte netted for the Foxes after Jamie Vardy had a goal ruled out
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After a Champions League draw to revive memories from their golden age of European travel, Aston Villa had to turn their minds back to the mundanity of this local skirmish.
And while Unai Emery's team were seldom at their most fluent they got the job done, as good teams do and sent supporters back down the M69 belting out their songs of celebration.
Goals by Amadou Onana and Jhon Duran secured the victory, just as they did at West Ham where they won by the same scoreline on the opening weekend of the season.
Leicester rallied late, pulling one goal back to create a chaotic finish, and Leicester boss Steve Cooper complained about the refereeing but Villa always had the edge. They were stronger and more potent and deserved three points.
'Very happy, we competed as we did in our first two matches,' said boss Emery. 'The Premier League is our first objective. These points and the win at West Ham were fantastic. We achieved the points and even against Arsenal we played very well. We tried to stay consistent in the same style and show the same commitment.'
Aston Villa won 2-1 away at Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon
Amadou Onana (right) gave Villa a 28th-minute lead by scoring his second goal of the season
Jhon Duran doubled Villa's advantage with a fine headed finish shortly after the hour-mark
Facundo Buonanotte scored his first goal for Leicester but his side were unable to draw level
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Ollie Watkins continued to suffer at the hands of inspired goalkeeping. Twice in the first half, Watkins was denied by the excellence of Mads Hermansen just as he was by David Raya in the defeat at Arsenal.
Leicester's Danish keeper dashed from his line to smother at Watkins inside the opening two minutes, then summoned a brilliant reaction save low to his right to foil him again, but Watkins, released by Morgan Rogers, should have scored.
Villa found a way past Hermansen from an imaginative free-kick routine.
Youri Tielemens shaped as if to swing it into the penalty area before cutting the pass short into the run of Jacob Ramsey, on as a first-half replacement for the injured Leon Bailey. Ramsey carried the ball into the box and cut a cross square across goal.
Onana came sliding in to score at full stretch.
After three goals in two years at Everton he has started with two goals in three games for his new club. Leicester, however, were furious.
They claimed it should not have been a free-kick because Oliver Skipp won the ball on the slide.
And they probably had a case. Cooper fumed: 'I won't talk about isolated decisions, but I will talk about managers' meeting and club visits from referees… and the clear message was that the threshold of tackles and duels was going to be raised. And then we get that.'
Leicester forced a couple of saves from Emi Martinez at the end of the first half and improved after the interval, only to be frustrated by another intervention by the referee when a pass from Harry Winks to Skipp clipped Coote's heel.
The whistle sounded as Jamie Vardy rolled the ball into the net.
Then the home side slipped further behind, Duran leaping to convert a stylish header from a Lucas Digne cross within 133 seconds of coming on.
Cooper made three changes and also enjoyed an instant reward as one sub Facundo Buonanotte swept in a volley after a cross by another sub Stephy Mavididi headed down by Wilfried Ndidi.
Leicester striker Jamie Vardy saw a goal disallowed when the score was still 2-0 to Villa
Vardy's goal was ruled out because the ball had touched referee David Coote in the build-up
Coote later awarded Leicester a penalty in added time after Vardy was fouled, but the decision was quickly overturned after the referee discovered that the striker had been offside
Aston Villa supporters pictured celebrating during Saturday's win at the King Power Stadium
Emiliano Martinez and Morgan Rogers celebrate after Villa returned to winning ways
The result comes after Villa discovered their Champions League opponents on Friday
It made for a frantic ending. The home crowd were enraged again by the officials. This time because no penalty awarded when Tielemans and Vardy collided in pursuit of a free-kick clipped into the box by Winks.
It wasn't a penalty. Tielemans cleared the ball, but emotions were running high. Then Vardy tumbled again under a challenge by Ezri Konsa.
This time, Coote looked as if he might point to the spot but Vardy was offside. Villa held on. Leicester are still searching for their first win of the season.