McGinn and Diaby ease Aston Villa past Luton – with a little help from Lockyer

The last time Emiliano Martínez scored an unfortunate late own goal after the ball rebounded off his own crossbar and in off the back of his head, Aston Villa were unlucky to lose to Arsenal. Since then, however, they have won all 12 games here at Villa Park and the Argentina goalkeeper’s misfortune here, after Ezri Konsa had nonchalantly headed against his own bar with Villa three goals to the good, was the only blip on an afternoon when Unai Emery’s team strolled to consolidate their place in the top five.

Especially once Villa went ahead, the first half resembled more of a training game of attack versus defence than an equitable Premier League contest. To be fair, the mismatch between these sides, who were four divisions apart only nine years ago, was epitomised by the Luton fans singing “Conference champions, you’ll never sing that”.

Apart from trailing to John McGinn’s 17^th minute opener, Luton could be fairly satisfied by their damage-limitation job before the interval. They soon defaulted to their 5-4-1 shape, allowing Villa to flicker between a narrow 4-4-2 when out of possession and the 3-4-3 that has undone far better resourced sides this season.

Villa certainly came out of the traps from kick-off with no intention to allow European travels or 11 previous successive home wins to slow them down. Nicolò Zaniolo volleyed wide from close range after being teed up by Ollie Watkins, then Thomas Kaminski made a sharp double save from the England striker after he seemed certain to convert Matt Cash’s superb low ball across the face of the six-yard box.

McGinn’s goal came from a slick set-piece routine, after Lucas Digne was fouled by Issa Kaboré wide on the left. Douglas Luiz laid the ball back towards the penalty spot where Moussa Diaby dummied. McGinn controlled, went right, then cracked in a right-footed shot.

Perhaps the greatest danger for Villa at this stage was complacency. Although Marvelous Nakamba and the recalled Ross Barkley, their former midfielders, were not pulling up any trees in the centre of the field, Luton retained a solid shape and remained in the contest at only one goal behind. Their recent run of five points from as many games had been sufficient to elevate them above the relegation zone before this weekend, and they could have returned to 17^th place by avoiding defeat here.

Such ambitions were gone by just after the hour mark. Emery, presumably wanting more pace to help Villa increase their tempo, introduced Leon Bailey for Zaniolo at the interval and was rewarded within four minutes. The substitute, who had scored in Thursday’s 4-1 Europa Conference League win away to AZ Alkmaar, headed back Lucas Digne’s cross for Diaby to snap home a left-footed half volley as crisply as you like.

Then Boubacar Kamara emerged from his hybrid holding midfielder/third centre-back role to play a delightful channel ball for Diaby to run onto down the right. The French forward played the ball in the direction of Watkins but Tom Lockyer got there first; unfortunately for the Luton captain, facing his own goal and a yard out, his touch went over the line.

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When Luton did string a few passes together in their own half, Villa fans started chanting “We want our ball back”. The home team were so comfortable that maintaining sharp best practice did prove too challenging. When one Luton substitute, Andros Townsend, crossed towards another, Elijah Adebayo, Konsa casually headed the ball back towards Martínez – only to see it go over his own goalkeeper’s head, hit the crossbar and rebound in off the Argentinian. But when you have already started the season by scoring 20 goals in five straight home wins, perhaps such nonchalance is understandable.