Kristoffer Ajer scored a late equaliser as Brentford held Aston Villa to a 2-2 draw at Villa Park, extending the home side’s wait for a win on their own ground. Twice in a strange, seesawing and tempestuous match, one side cancelled the other out within two minutes.
Ajer was central to the game’s defining moments. Brentford took the lead when Jaidon Anthony’s pressing forced Tyrone Mings into a loose pass; Kevin Schade found Igor Thiago, whose cross was cleared by Victor Lindelöf to the edge of the box, and Yehor Yarmolyuk hammered the ball home. Villa needed only 88 seconds to reply, Emi Buendía’s shot deflecting off Jannik Schuster and Nicolas Jackson nipping around the back of Ajer to finish unmarked from the six-yard box.
Villa went ahead on 77 minutes when Johan Manzambi picked out John McGinn, whose shot cannoned in via Ajer’s calf. McGinn celebrated by dragging his shorts high above his waist in answer to chants from the away end about his weight, and Emery clenched both fists as he savoured the moment. Two minutes later it was gone: Ajer strode forward into the Villa box, kept three defenders at arm’s length and scored the equaliser, his shot also taking a nick off a defender, this time Lindelöf.
Unai Emery had gone as far as dipping into expletive to make clear he was not overly enamoured with Villa’s previous home performance, describing their defeat to Nottingham Forest as “very shit”. The failure to hold on here extended a winless home record that stretches back to the Villa Park revamp, which left the ground with just three stands in play.
Brentford had their chances to take more than a point. El Hadji Malick Diouf’s deliveries into the box kept Villa’s defenders on their toes, and the Brazil striker Igor Thiago was a constant threat. The draw also maintained Keith Andrews’s fine, unbeaten record against Emery across four meetings, while Brentford remain unbeaten in the league this season.
Ajer’s afternoon ended with a booking for questioning a decision by the referee, Craig Pawson, who managed the feat of drawing ire from both sets of supporters. It capped a busy spell for the centre-back, who had spent a chunk of the extended international window fielding questions about the state of mind of his Norway teammate Erling Haaland.
Both goalkeepers were involved. Caoimhín Kelleher made a brilliant, instinctive double save on the verge of half-time to deny Jackson and then McGinn, and after the interval Zion Suzuki pushed wide a Schade volley. Buendía had earlier passed up the chance to put Villa ahead in the first half, crashing to his knees after Michael Kayode, fresh from scoring on his Italy debut during the international break, superbly blocked Johan Manzambi’s low strike.