Ten minutes when Aston Villa 'lost their minds' against Sunderland before rescuing a win

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As senior Villa figures, relieved but suitably stressed, joked afterwards, “everyone must have been in Manchester”. Still, in those 10 minutes, both they and all those inside Villa Park had endured a deepening sense of pain and, inversely, experienced joy, however unforeseen it may have felt before then. A straightforward 3-1 Villa victory could have so easily turned into a 4-3 loss. The Athletic breaks it down… The methodical approach of Unai Emery’s Villa, supposedly set to see out another controlled victory completely ruptured in the 86th minute. Sunderland scored twice inside 58 seconds in a comeback that was swift and violently unexpected. When reflecting on it afterwards, Emery said “we lost our minds”. That sentiment was likely shared by everyone inside the stadium. Seven minutes earlier, Ollie Watkins and captain John McGinn received deserved standing ovations from home supporters. All their team-mates on the pitch clapped along, smiling and congratulating the pair on a job well done and another gigantic step towards securing Champions League qualification. Leon Bailey, who was warming up close to the touchline, shared jokes with the fans behind him. The final stages were meant to follow the script, which seemed to be quite routine. Instead, the serene ending was ripped to shreds, and it was Jadon Sancho who was largely responsible. Having replaced McGinn, Sancho was still settling into the game’s pace, but was markedly slack in possession. He received the ball on the right and just outside his own 18-yard box. Under pressure and facing his own byline, Sancho lacked the obvious urgency required, with three Sunderland shirts in proximity and, as it transpired, in a dangerous position to lose possession. Sunderland substitute Trai Hume needed little encouragement to pick Sancho’s pocket. He stole in and drove inside the box, curling past Emiliano Martinez into the far, top corner. Villa did not take that as a warning or, as they would normally, play the situation. In other words, they would definitely not pass straight into the mouth of Sunderland’s midfield, the area they have their best tacklers and most players in, immediately from kick-off. In disbelief, Emery watched Youri Tielemans, among his most trusted leaders, receive the ball from kick off and pass forward and into the path of Sancho, visibly desperate to atone for his first error. Tielemans set Sancho on his way down a blind alley. For the second time in less than a minute, he was robbed of the ball. Team-mates, in fairness, did little to alleviate Sancho’s second giveaway. Enzo Le Fee slid in on the 26-year-old before realising that Villa were vulnerable in defence. Team-mates behind Sancho had parted, leaving a clear passing lane into Wilson Isidor. Villa’s centre-backs Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa, previously compact and organised, tried to scramble back, but were oddly far off Sunderland’s sole striker. To add to the haphazardness, Martinez charged out but slipped, with Isidor sliding past to equalise. “When we conceded one goal, we tried to go quick, and we lost the ball,” explained Emery post-match. “After the first goal, the players didn’t respond well in their positioning to protect the next goal.” Villa appeared to have lost the plot. The players were stunned, not knowing where to look, what to do, or what would happen next. Emery sprinted out of his technical area, hurling strong-armed instructions at his defence. Yet the mood had shifted. Villa were dizzied. Players were jumping out of positions, losing all discipline and shape. Emery’s words were, literally and figuratively, blowing against the wind. Now into additional time, Konsa cleared a low cross out with his head for a corner, having already been sprawled out on the floor before the ball came into the box. The distances between the back four continued to widen, and led to a 37-second passage of play that defined the match. In the 92nd minute, Sancho was crowded out once more, with Le Fee slicing through Mings and Lucas Digne. Habib Diarra, similarly to Isidor, was one-on-one with Martinez. Four long seconds stood between Diarra’s first touch and his shot. Incredibly, even in the frenzy, Diarra had the wherewithal — or naivety — to attempt a dink, rejecting an Isidor-type low finish or to square for Chemsdine Talbi to tap into an empty net. Martinez did not slip this time, staying as tall as he could until the final moment, clawing the chip away from danger. The momentum reversed and the noise got greater with every yard Villa took towards Sunderland’s goal. The volume peaked as Digne crossed and Tammy Abraham got the most subtle and — in the context of Villa’s pursuit of Champions League qualification — monumental of touches to score. Villa had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. In 10 minutes, three goals, all from substitutes — the final one set up by Digne, another substitute — had torn up the script and led to an even more dramatic, astonishing ending. “We had the moment to score the winner, but at the other end, as is football, they kill us,” Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris aptly summarised in his post-match press conference. “He (Diarra) apologised as he felt it was a key moment in the game.” “I will need tomorrow to take a day off and recover,” Emery told the BBC’s Match of the Day. “We conceded two goals in a crazy minute.” In some ways, the final 10 minutes was a microcosm of Villa’s season. How they ultimately recovered from setbacks and responded to crises is why they are so close to ensuring Champions League qualification. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Jacob is a football reporter covering Aston Villa for The Athletic. Previously, he followed Southampton FC for The Athletic after spending three years writing about south coast football, working as a sports journalist for Reach PLC. In 2021, he was awarded the Football Writers' Association Student Football Writer of the Year. Follow Jacob on Twitter @J_Tanswell