Aston Villa maintained their position in the top-four race with a comfortable 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Villa Park thanks to goals in each half from Moussa Diaby and Ezri Konsa.

The win returns Villa to three points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur in their race for the final Champions League spot, but having played a match more.

How the match unfolded

Unai Emery made two changes from their draw at West Ham United as Diego Carlos and Diaby started ahead of Clement Lenglet and Jhon Duran.

Wolves had three changes as Tommy Doyle, Toti Gomes and Leon Chiwome, who made his first Premier League appearance, replaced Pedro Neto, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Nathan Fraser.

Douglas Luiz thought he had given Villa an early lead in the ninth minute after firing home from a rebound, but the goal was ruled out as Ollie Watkins was offside in the build-up.

Wolves had a golden opportunity to go ahead five minutes later when Rayan Ait-Nouri got on the end of a cross in the six-yard box, but with the goal gaping, the Wolves left-back shot too close to Emiliano Martinez who kept the effort out with his left leg.

The next big chance fell to Watkins just before the half-hour after he was played in on goal by Youri Tielemans, but the striker failed to hit the target from a tight angle.

Villa managed to break the deadlock in the 36th minute through Diaby. Leon Bailey’s deflected cross fell to Diaby on the edge of the box and the winger smashed it past Jose Sa.

Mario Lemina had the first good chance of the second half, but could not generate enough power on his header to trouble Martinez.

And Villa doubled their lead in the 65th minute in unorthodox fashion through Konsa. 

Villa broke and Diaby set the defender free down the right. His attempted cross to the far post went in off the upright, catching the goalkeeper and defenders off-guard for Konsa’s first goal of the season and his first in the competition since 2021/22.

Nicolo Zaniolo almost scored a third for the home side minutes later, but his effort was kept out by Sa.

Wolves did not provide much threat after Villa’s second goal and Emery’s side were able to defend their lead through to the end.

Villa go back above Spurs with 59 points, while Wolves’ own European ambitions were hit, dropping to 10th on 41 points as they missed the chance to move up to seventh.

Villa report | Wolves report

Match officials

Referee: Paul Tierney. Assistants: Scott Ledger, Steve Meredith. Fourth official: Matt Donohue. VAR: Peter Bankes. Assistant VAR: Nick Greenhalgh.