After 87 pulsating minutes, a defeat which would rankle Aston Villa for some time loomed. Crystal Palace had barely had a kick in the first half, but Odsonne Edouard had swept them ahead two minutes into the second. Indeed, it would have had been more had not Joel Ward missed a simple header and Emiliano Martinez somehow got a hand to Eberechi Eze’s lob.
Villa head coach Unai Emery kept his nerve, but he changed almost everything else. His trusty 4-2-3-1 formation was abandoned in favour of an all-guns-blazing 4-3-3 / 4-2-4 and the maverick gifts of Leon Bailey and then Jhon Duran were introduced for one last haul towards the Holte End in search of an equaliser.
Fortune, they say, favours the brave and Villa were both brave and fortunate. First, Duran chested Lucas Digne’s cross down, swivelled and volleyed past a startled Sam Johnstone in spectacular fashion. Bedlam.
Then in the 94th minute, Ollie Watkins tumbled under Chris Richards’s challenge. Referee Darren England awarded a penalty. Var had already denied Villa a goal when it ruled out Moussa Diaby’s lovely first half strike for a marginal but correct offside. It was deployed again. After five excruciating minutes, some extended discussions with Stockley Park and more angles than a protractor, England upheld his original decision. More bedlam.
There was even time for a third, when Bailey tapped in Diaby’s 101st minute cross. Bedlam unbounded and Villa had somehow won nine consecutive home top-flight league games for the first time since Graham Taylor’s class of 1989-90.
It should never have been this exciting. Villa missed a hatful of first half chances – Matty Cash spurned two in a minute, Watkins missed a simple one-on-one – but they couldn’t break down dogged but unadventurous Palace. Edouard’s fourth goal in three games changed everything. Ahead, Palace were bolder and without Tyrone Mings, Villa looked increasingly fragile.
When Watkins’s curler hit the bar, then Johnstone’s head and then drifted wide, it seemed as if it would not - could not - be their day. Yet as desperation took hold, Emery took charge. Moussa was moved to the left wing, while Bailey dragged Palace wide on the right. Duran was predictable in only his unpredictability, Douglas Luiz stormed further forwards and defeat became victory.
“I had to use a different tactical decision,” said a relived Emery. “We didn’t take our first half chances and there’s nothing to be done about that. We have to keep structure, that’s where everything starts, but from that I gave the players the licence to play with heart and passion. I enjoyed that in the end.”
Palace will have had better days. Already without Marc Guehi and Jefferson Lerma, injured during the international break, Roy Hodgson, their 76-year-old manager, was taken ill at the team hotel between breakfast and the pre-match meal in what the club described as a “private medical matter”.
Hodgson was well enough to send the team good wishes before kick-off.
“He’s feeling better and hopefully he’ll be back sooner rather than later,” said stand-in manager Paddy McCarthy.
