Ezri Konsa sent off as Aston Villa and Leeds share six-goal thriller

Whatever these two teams spent their mid-season winter break doing, it is to the neutral’s delight that defending cannot have featured too highly. Philippe Coutinho scored one goal and made two for the elegant Jacob Ramsey in between two goals for Daniel James that ultimately enabled Leeds United to come from 3-1 down to draw thanks to Diego Llorente’s second-half equaliser.

Ezri Konsa was sent off three minutes from time, for a second booking after he raised an arm to stop Illan Meslier from launching a counter-attack, as this crazy game continued to make very little sense.

Villa initially looked refreshed from their 18-day break but, after the brightest of starts in which Coutinho’s touch was mesmerising, they went behind from a mistake that smacked more of rustiness.

Tyrone Mings had been unfortunate to see his header from Douglas Luiz’s corner hit Llorente before Illan Meslier saved but at the other end it was the Villa captain’s mistake that yielded Leeds their breakthrough chance.

Mings seemed to have extracted the ball off Rodrigo down the right wing only for the Leeds man to take it straight back off him. The ball ran square to James and Leeds’ makeshift centre-forward did not hesitate to drill his shot, first time, into the far bottom corner.

The diminutive Wales winger does not appear to be a natural fit for the central striker’s role but, in Patrick Bamford’s continued absence and with the assistance of Mateusz Klich and Rodrigo attacking from midfield, his pace and willingness have offered Leeds an outlet.

James’ cross-shot was saved by Emi Martínez’s feet before a pivotal 60 seconds swung the whole momentum of the game. Running onto Jack Harrison’s pass into the inside-right channel, James cut inside and