Ollie Watkins settled a hard-fought encounter against his old club Brentford as Aston Villa boosted their hopes of a top-four Premier League finish.
The 49th-minute winner moved the visitors up three places to seventh in the table and they are now just two points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester City, although Unai Emery’s side have played a game more.
A largely uninspiring contest was sparked into life by Watkins when he raced on to Jacob Ramsey’s pass down the left and cut inside to drive a low effort that flicked off Nathan Collins and past home goalkeeper Mark Flekken.
The England forward, who spent three years with the Bees, almost turned provider just over a minute later.
Again he found space down the left channel as he teed up Morgan Rogers to dispatch another effort past Flekken, only for it to be disallowed after a video assistant referee (VAR) review found Watkins had just strayed offside.
Keane Lewis-Potter struck the bottom of the right-hand post as Brentford went in search of an equaliser.
However, with on-loan Chelsea defender Axel Disasi, particularly impressive in defence, Villa held firm to record their first league double over Brentford since 1947 and drop Thomas Frank’s team from 11th to 12th place.
