Aston Villa returned Villa Park to the Premier League, but a pair of early mistakes allowed Bournemouth three points it didn’t quite earn in a 2-1 match on Saturday.
[ MORE: Watch full PL match replays ]
Goalkeeper Tom Heaton conceded a penalty in the first minute, converted by Joshua King, and Harry Wilson scored a deflected shot in the 12th minute.
Douglas Luiz scored a beautiful goal in the second half, but that’s all the Villans could muster in the loss.
Three things we learned
- Heaton hears a who: The Aston Villa backstop is going to save them more points than he loses them, but his first minute penalty is one he’ll hope to forget.
- Eddie Howe’s men start well again: The Cherries have four points through two matches, and overcome their hiccup against Sheffield United.
- Even in defeat, Villa are for real: You won’t make the types of mistakes the hosts made early and find three points often, but Villa controlled play for most of the match and took nearly double the shots of the visitors in a near-flip of their performance on Opening Day at Spurs.
I mean, look at Luiz’s goal:
[ VIDEO: Premier League highlights ]
Heaton chopped down Callum Wilson just 45 seconds into the match, and Joshua King converted the penalty to give the Cherries a fine start.
It was 2-0 a dozen minutes later when Harry Wilson hit a screamer that deflected to leave Heaton out to lunch.
Villa pounded the pavement to get back into the match, but Eddie Howe was pleased to have only allowed a single goal -- Luiz’s beauty (below) -- and held on for the win against a very good Villa. From the BBC: