Bournemouth made simple pre-match mistake that cost them vs Aston Villa
Aston Villa secured a huge 4-0 victory over Bournemouth on Sunday.
Bournemouth fell to a heavy defeat against Villa as their hopes of returning to the Premier League top four came back down to earth with a bang.
Emi Buendia netted a free kick against Bournemouth to open the scoring before Amadou Onana, Ross Barkley and Donyell Malen completed the scoring.
Unai Emery was pleased with the result, even if Morgan Rogers could have been sent off against Bournemouth for a poor challenge on Evanilson.
The home side arguably deserved the victory and were helped to all three points by a pre-match decision by the Cherries at Villa Park.
Bournemouth swapped ends pre-match at Villa Park
Villa Park is slated for renovation in the coming years, but the Holte End will remain a constant feature in B6 due to its historic significance.
The stand has represented a fear for many top sides, with even eventual Champions League winners PSG seriously struggling up against the atmosphere in the Midlands.
Many teams come and attempt to upset the apple cart by making pre-match changes and swapping ends before kick-off.
Villa typically defend the Holte End in the first half and attack it in the second, but Bournemouth made the decision to change that around.
The home side went on to score two in front of the grand old stand, but that isn’t the only issue with the Cherries’ plans.
Defending the Holte in the second half allowed Emi Martinez to utilise the noise to completely put off Antoine Semenyo before his penalty was saved.
If the Ghana international had taken aim in front of the North Stand, things could have been so different for the away side.
Such a simple and seemingly smart decision from Bournemouth may have been their biggest undoing.
Emi Martinez made most of Aston Villa fans vs Bournemouth
It was controversial that a penalty was given against Rogers when he had little knowledge of the ball hitting his hand inside the box.
As soon as the decision was given the green light, Martinez turned to supporters and riled them up to generate a huge level of noise.
There is no guarantee that this impacted Semenyo, but the Argentina international did go on to make a trademark penalty save, just as he did at the 2022 World Cup.
This capped off the 32-year-old’s performance, in which he made four saves, keeping out 100 per cent of Bournemouth’s efforts on goal.
He also completed 25 passes, eight of which were long balls and also chipped in with two high claims to take the pressure off the home side.
After the mistake against Liverpool in his last Premier League outing, the keeper responded in perfect fashion against the Cherries.
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