An 89th-minute penalty from Douglas Luiz earned an otherwise wasteful Aston Villa a hard-fought 3-2 home victory over 10-man Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday. The result took Unai Emery's side to second place in the point table -- two points above current holders Manchester City who have a game in hand.
In an end-to-end first half, Villa's Leon Bailey fired into the roof of the net in the 28th minute from an Ollie Watkins pass to break the deadlock, but Burnley responded through Zeki Amdouni's volley three minutes later.
A simple finish from Moussa Diaby put the hosts back ahead in the 42nd minute, before Burnley went down to 10 men when Sander Berge was shown a second yellow card for a tug on Luiz's shirt. Villa were given an almighty scare late on as Burnley levelled through Lyle Foster's smash-and-grab effort, but the home fans breathed a sigh of relief when Luiz hammered his spot-kick off the underside of the crossbar and into the net after Jhon Duran was fouled by Aaron Ramsey.
Diaby, McGinn and other Villa players saw a number of their attempts being either saved by Burnley custodian Trafford or going wide of the target. However, Luiz scoring from the spot spread an air of relief across Villa Park.