Aston Villa 1-2 SwanseaAston Villa’s Tim Sherwood under more pressure after defeat by Swansea City
Home team scorers
Jordan Ayew 62
Away team scorers
Gylfi Sigurdsson 68
Andre Ayew 87
For six minutes there was a chink of light for Tim Sherwood but hope disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived on a day that may mark the end of the Aston Villa manager’s reign. André Ayew’s dramatic winner, three minutes from time, condemned Villa to a sixth successive league defeat and leaves Sherwood on the brink.
A different story had looked like unfolding here when Jordan Ayew, André’s brother, headed Villa into the lead in the 62nd minute with his first goal for the club, but Gylfi Sigurdsson equalised with a sublime free-kick shortly afterwards and then came the moment that twisted the knife and piled the pressure on to Sherwood.
Kyle Naughton swung in a delicious cross from the right and there was André Ayew, inside the six-yard box and just ahead of Alan Hutton, waiting to turn the ball home to give Swansea their first league victory in six matches. Without a win since the opening day of the season and with only point from a possible 27, Sherwood is now clinging on to his job by his fingtertips and it remains to be seen whether the board decide to act.
With so much at stake and both teams out of form, it was never going to be a classic, but it was a measure of how little entertainment there was on the pitch that the first time the fans put their hands together for a round of applause was at half-time, when they announced over the PA system that Juan Pablo Ángel was celebrating his 40th birthday.
Villa and Swansea were as bad as one another in the first half, careless in possession, devoid of ideas and desperately lacking a goal threat. Indeed, it took a melee, following an altercation between Micah Richards and Federico Fernández, to get anyone excited.
Richards seemed to take exception to Fernández sticking out an arm and blocking him off, the two went nose to nose and Williams, along with a number of others, came racing in. Once all the pushing and shoving finished, Neil Swarbrick booked Richards and Williams but the feud carried on at the final whistle, when Richards and Fernández clashed again.
Fernández had earlier squandered the best (and pretty much the only) chance of the opening 45 minutes. Jonjo Shelvey swung in a deep corner, Bafétimbi Gomis climbed highest at the far post to head back across goal and Fernández, unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box, lashed the ball over the bar.
Villa, set up in a rather odd formation in which Idrissa Gana Gueye was the only recognised central midfielder, had actually started reasonably brightly but they soon faded and began to look anxious as the crowd became more impatient. Rudy Gestede, shrugging off Ki Sung-yueng, dragged a shot wide and the striker headed a Leandro Bacuna corner over later in the first half, but that was as much as the home team could muster before the interval.
Gabriel Agbonlahor had a decent opportunity to put Villa ahead shortly after the restart, when he curled well wide after scampering clear on the left, but it was in the 62nd minute when this slowburner of a game finally came to life. Brad Guzan produced a superb save to deny André Ayew, rushing of his line to smother a left-footed shot from six yards after Gomis had cut the ball back, and 33 seconds later the Swansea forward’s brother had the ball in the net at the other end.
Jack Grealish carried the ball from inside his own half, evading a desperate challenge from Ki before offloading to Bacuna. With Agbonlahor breaking on the left, Bacuna fed the ball into the striker’s path and, showing a rare moment of composure, the Villa forward took a touch before picking out the unmarked Ayew, whose diving header from inside the six-yard box found the bottom corner.
Six minutes later Swansea were level. Richards fouled Sigurdsson 25 yards from goal and the Icelander picked himself up before delivering a sumptuous right-footed free-kick that was always moving away from Guzan’s despairing dive as it found the top corner. Swansea, however, were not finished.
Naughton found space on the right and his perfectly weighted cross implored André Ayew to convert.
Guardian