Bailey and Buendia fire Villa to victory over Leeds

Friday the 13th proved an unlucky one for Leeds United.

Jesse Marsch’s side dominated for long spells only for Villa to score a second goal against the run of play, thanks to VAR.

By contrast, Leeds were denied by the video assistant as their indifferent run of results continued.

Villa, disrupted by first-half injuries to Lucas Digne and Ollie Watkins, continued their recent trend of lacklustre first halves at home.

But remarkably they led at half-time after containing a bombardment from Leeds following a third-minute goal from Leon Bailey.

Leeds went into the contest with two wins in their previous 14 Premier League games, and the way they tore at Villa for much of this game showed a steely determination to improve that sequence.

Ashley Young started the move for their goal from a Leeds corner with a flighted pass to Boubacar Kamara.

The midfielder ran at the Leeds defence, cutting inside Pascal Struijk before squaring to Bailey, who took a touch onto his favoured left foot prior to bending a shot into the far corner of the net.

What looked like a dislocated shoulder for Villa left back Digne prompted an early debut for Alexandre Moreno after just nine minutes.

And the 29-year-old new £13.2m signing from Real Betis was to save a certain goal before half-time.

Leeds missed numerous chances to equalise as they dominated proceedings, with Villa – dabbling in a dangerous game of playing it out deep from the back – could only hit them on the counter.

Rodrigo suddenly found time and space deep inside Villa’s box after a cross from the right, but just as he was to pull the trigger, Ezri Konsa stuck in a vital boot to stab behind.

Rodrigo was then denied bravely by Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez from Brenden Aaronson’s