As Burnley made their belated return to win at Watford and move away from Norwich, goals from Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings helped Aston Villa win their first game in six games. He left Villa with 40 points, all except securing their own place. Steven Gerrard was kind enough to pay tribute to the work done by his predecessor at Villa Park and to predict that Norwich will once again be a challenge to rise next season. “I’m disappointed with Norwich and Dean, but it would always be a huge mountain to climb and I have no doubt it will be one of the favorites to return to,” said the Villa manager, who took over. after Smith left here in November. Smith will stay at Villa for the exciting run to the 2019 playoffs. His second-division anxiety, where he also thrived with Brentford, should be a positive factor for the archetypal yo-yo team. “Unfortunately, during the season, our performances were not good enough,” said Smith. “We lack the quality required in this championship. “My reaction is bitterly disappointed and I take full responsibility. In the last four or five weeks there has probably been an inevitability. We have not improved enough to stay in the league, but we certainly have a lot to work on. “There are some very good players in this football club who I think can get better, but they found the step to the Premier League a little difficult.” Danny Ings fights with Sam Byram during Aston Villa’s victory over Norwich. Photo: Rebecca Naden / Reuters The very important first goal came after a forced change. Leon Bailey was substituted with an ankle injury and the first touch from Ings, the substitute, led Watkins to score his ninth goal of the season in the Premier League. Watkins was alive all day, playing volleyball only in the sixth minute and was constantly threatening to come back. His goal always seemed to provide the springboard for Villa to play in the counterattack, while allowing Norwich to enjoy a relatively harmless possession. The English striker’s explosive finish came within a minute of the change in the first half which encouraged Gerrard to make a major change of tactics. After Bailey, who had a great left-footed shot from the crossbar by Tim Krul as Villa chased an early hit, left, Ings’s appearance allowed Villa to turn into a diamond in the midfield, with Philippe Coutinho at the top. Ings took a position high and wide on the left and his first contribution was a large cross that sent Watkins running into the in-right channel in a one-on-one battle with Brandon Williams. As Watkins sent the ball with his head, Williams slipped and Villa’s top scorer assembled before hitting with a right-footed shot that went just wide of Sam Bairam’s cover, high into the net. Ings headed against the crossbar early in the second half as Villa continued to make chances. Norwich came closer to scoring when Emi Martínez made a great save from Milot Rashica in the middle of the first half, but Villa deserved the victory, which was confirmed in the delays when Emi Buendía’s attempt to bring Ings and to shoot. The Fiver: sign up and receive our daily football email. Gerrard said his team looked better when they had two ahead, but wanted the option to play with different systems. Either way, he wants his team to be more ruthless. “It helps when you play with top strikers,” he said. “I would like to have more killers in the team, as we had opportunities to score more than two goals. If we had been dishonest earlier, I think we would have run out of the game. But as for Danny and Ollie, I’m really happy with them. “I want the top of the pitch to be unpredictable, I want to have options and I want to have players who can create different problems to make us versatile. “But the back end of the team remained almost the same and we had five clear goals out of nine and two in a row, so we are doing a lot of good things defensively.”
