Good timing all round, really. Good for Ross Barkley in terms of one run into the area and another across his manager’s eyeline, and good for Aston Villa as they ended a mildly troubling streak of results away from home.
What might have been a fourth straight loss on the road was instead a rather fortuitous win that carried Villa back up into the thinner air, and within that climb came a goal from Barkley which will help his own interests.
It is no great secret that his loan from Chelsea has had its tricky moments, through a combination of an iffy hamstring and some iffier decisions around the Covid regulations.