Ten-man Brentford claimed a brilliant win at Aston Villa to dent the hosts’ Premier League title ambitions.
Dango Ouattara’s fine strike stunned Villa minutes after Kevin Schade was sent off for pushing his studs into Matty Cash’s midriff.
The returning Tammy Abraham had a goal disallowed as Villa lost successive home league games for the first time in two years.
They remain third in the table – seven points behind leaders Arsenal – while Keith Andrews’ Brentford sit seventh, four points adrift of the top five.
“It was a defensive masterclass in the second half,” said Andrews.
“I look at it with immense pride and satisfaction but I’m not really too surprised because I see it every day in training.
“We had to dig deep, knowing what was to come. They are an elite team and in the title race and they can be deadly.
“To say the performance was pleasing would be an understatement. Just immense pride with what the group produced.”
Andrews also accepted Schade’s red card, which came three minutes before half-time.
“They are not robots; they will make mistakes. Kevin knows that and we have no complaints. We’ll deal with it in the next couple of days,” he said.
“He’s relieved. He is very grateful to his team-mates for putting in the shift they did.”
Striker Schade’s dismissal looked to have given Villa control, only for Ouattara to find the top corner in first-half stoppage time.
Abraham thought he levelled three minutes into the second half after Caoimhin Kelleher parried Jadon Sancho’s strike, only for the goal to be ruled out – after a four-minute video assistant referee (VAR) review – as the ball went out before Villa attacked.
But there were no late heroics as Brentford defended valiantly to hold on for a deserved and impressive victory.
“We lost a very good opportunity,” said Villa manager Unai Emery. “How we played 90 minutes with the circumstances and how they competed can happen.
“Frustrated, disappointed, but now is the moment I want to get balance in everything we are doing.
“We’ll rest two days now, finish the transfer window tomorrow and hopefully we can continue building the team with the players we have here.
“We don’t have a lot of possibilities to do something. We did everything. It’s completely done I think, the window, for us.”
Villa analysis: VAR debate will rage but Villa should blame themselves
Emery walked down the side of the pitch at full-time with a face like thunder.
It could have been the defeat, but you expect he will be mulling over what to say about the VAR decision which denied Villa at least a point.
A four-minute delay to disallow Abraham’s goal had Villa Park singing anti-Premier League and VAR songs, while the debate will rage over whether going back 19 seconds to the start of the move was correct.
There is no denying, though, that Villa suffered back-to-back home league defeats for the first time since February 2024, when they lost to Newcastle and Manchester United.
This time – unlike Thursday’s win from 2-0 down against Red Bull Salzburg – there was no comeback despite an expected goals (xG) of 1.98, compared to Brentford’s 0.53.
Kelleher did not have a serious stop to make and Villa failed to open up a Brentford team who played more than half the game with 10 men.
It was attack versus defence in the second half, but Villa were not good enough to find a way through Brentford and failed to capitalise on the gift of Schade’s red card.
Emery has always played Villa’s title chances down and, after losing at home to Everton and Brentford, they have fallen further behind Arsenal.
