Aston Villa 2-1 Leicester City

Ezri Konsa netted a brace as Aston Villa came from behind to beat Leicester City at Villa Park on Sunday.

The defender was credited with the equaliser after getting a faint flick on Emiliano Buendía’s header, cancelling out Harvey Barnes’ 14^th minute opener.

Jacob Ramsey had a goal disallowed in controversial circumstances as the sides went in level at half-time after an entertaining first half.

A fired-up home side emerged for the second half and found a deserved winner when Konsa headed home a corner after 54 minutes, handing Steven Gerrard his third win in four games as head coach.

Brendan Rodgers had won all six of his previous league visits to Villa Park as the Foxes’ manager, and his team started brightly under the lights in B6, calling Emiliano Martínez into action to deny Patson Daka from close-range.

The game came to a halt in the sixth minute as players, staff and both sets of supporters observed a minute’s applause for Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

In their 12 previous top-flight meetings at Villa Park, the hosts had failed to keep a single clean sheet, and that record continued when Daka fed Barnes on the edge of the box, with the winger setting himself before calmly passing the ball into the far corner.

Leicester’s lead lasted only three minutes. Following a Douglas Luiz free-kick, Matty Cash headed the ball back into the danger area, where Buendía was waiting to plant a header back across goal and beyond the reach of Kasper Schmeichel.

After numerous replays from a variety of angles, the goal was awarded to Konsa after the centre-back got the faintest of touches on the ball on its way into the net.

Both sides enjoyed spells of pressure before the home side built up a head of steam just before the break, believing they’d taken the lead in stoppage time when Ramsey pounced on an error from Schmeichel to turn the ball home from point-blank range.

However, the young midfielder was denied his first senior goal at Villa Park when referee Michael Oliver watched the incident back on the VAR monitor and decided that the ‘keeper had control of the ball between his hand and the ground when Ramsey lashed home.

Undeterred by a sense of injustice about their disallowed goal, Villa began the second half strongly and created a chance for marauding full-back Ashley Young, who flashed an effort just wide.

With an encouraged Villa Park now a cauldron of noise, the home side got themselves in front for the first time.

Having been awarded his first goal of the season in the first half, Konsa climbed highest at the back post and squeezed a header past Schmeichel from a John McGinn corner to send the locals into raptures.

The all-action Scotsman came close to creating his side’s third goal with just over 20 minutes to play, sliding in Watkins before watching on as the striker’s shot was saved by the feet of the Leicester ‘keeper.

Unlike his opposite number, Martínez had been a relative spectator during the second half. But when he was eventually called into action after 75 minutes, the Argentine showed his class by acrobatically tipping Barnes’ header over the bar.

Jamie Vardy, Ayoze Perez and Kelechi Iheanacho were all introduced as Rodgers pushed for a leveller, but Villa held firm to end his 100% league record at Villa Park.