No Happy Return For Smith, As Villa Ease To 2-0 Win Over Norwich

Dean Smith failed to get one over his former side on Tuesday night, with Norwich falling to a 2-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa.

Steven Gerrard replaced Smith in the Villa Park hot seat last month and will have been delighted with how much control his side showed in a comfortable victory at Carrow Road.

Villa dominated from the off and rarely let up. John McGinn’s dipping effort nearly found the top corner, but Tim Krul did well to backtrack and get a glove on the shot to tip it over in the opening minutes.

Norwich were giving up possession easily and looked nervy at the back, thanking their lucky stars that Ashley Young attempted a dummy in the penalty area when he had a clear sight of goal.

But Villa grabbed a deserved lead ten minutes prior to half-time. Jacob Ramsey picked up a pass from Ollie Watkins on the halfway line, and with no help in front of him, drove towards goal with guile and aggression before firing past the helpless Krul.

After nearly beating him from distance early on, McGinn then forced Krul into another sprawling save directly from a corner, with the Dutchman just about pedalling back across his goal in time to claw the set piece off the line.

Norwich knew they had to improve on a pathetic first-half performance and started applying pressure just after the interval, pressing Young into a mistake that saw the ball zip back across his own goal at pace, but no one in yellow was able to get a telling touch.

At the other end, Emiliano Buendia was causing plenty of problems for his former club, playing a beautiful cross-field ball over to Matt Targett, who cut inside and sent a half-volley into the side-netting.

Gerrard’s men continued their push for a second and nearly found it when McGinn picked out Watkins with a deep cross, but the England striker headed straight at Krul’s feet.

Norwich’s first half-chance of the game came in the 72nd minute when Billy Gilmour fizzed in a free-kick that was nodded on by Adam Idah, but the Irishman’s header was weak and easily dealt with by Emiliano Martinez.

Villa put the game beyond doubt in the final five minutes. Carney Chukwuemeka, fresh after being brought on as a substitute, easily held off the challenge of Gilmour and played a lovely ball across goal for Watkins to tap home and put the game to bed.

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