Aston Villa returned to winning ways on Thursday night, as Unai Emery’s side beat AZ Alkmaar 2-1 at Villa Park on match day four of the Europa Conference League group stages.

It was crucial that the Villans claimed three points on home soil to keep within touching distance of Legia Warsaw, who were also victorious at home on the night, defeating Zrinjski 2-0 in Poland.

The results in the fourth round of games in Group E mean that Villa need a point to qualify for the next stage of the competition, with the crucial clash with Legia up next.

How Aston Villa beat AZ Alkmaar

It looked as though it could be a simple task for the hosts in the opening stages of the game, as Clement Lenglet opened the scoring within two minutes.

The Frenchman was denied his first goal for the club as it was ruled out due to corner taker Leon Bailey’s apparent inference, a decision that Ollie Watkins revealed post-match was deemed a “mistake” by the officials when speaking to TNT Sports.

The disallowed goal marked the summit of excitement in the first half, with AZ’s on-fire forward Vangelis Pavlidis putting the visitors ahead after the interval.

Luckily for Emery’s side, Diego Carlos claimed his first goal in claret and blue to level the scoring on the hour mark, before Watkins settled the destination of the points nine minutes from time with a sumptuous header.

The 63% of possession held by Villa, and their six shots on target didn’t tell the whole story of the game, that the hosts struggled to grow into as AZ asked a host of questions of the Spaniard’s rotated side.

Aside from the two goalscorers, another gem put in an impressive shift at Villa Park to contribute to the victory, as Bailey continued his fine run of form on the flank.

Leon Bailey’s performance in numbers vs AZ Alkmaar

Lauded for his “excellent” distribution throughout the match by journalist Tom Nightingale, the Jamaican recorded his fifth goal contribution in his previous five games with an assist for Carlos’ header.

Despite being frustrating with his decision-making at times in the battle, the winger proved to be too much for AZ to handle once again, with the Dutch outfit still recovering from his goal and assist in the previous meeting.

90

1

2

5/9

1

3/6

3

20x

Aside from losing possession 20 times for his efforts in trying to move the ball forward, the 26-year-old switched on his playmaking skills for the benefit of his teammates, recording two key passes and creating one big chance, via Sofascore.

After being replaced in the final moments of the game, Bailey received a 7/10 match rating from Birmingham World’s Charlie Haffenden, who dubbed the former Bundesliga whiz as Villa’s 'main danger' on the night.

As also noted by Haffenden, the majority of the Villans’ chances spawned from Bailey’s area of the pitch, reinforcing the havoc he can cause when in top form on the flank in Emery’s free-flowing side.

With his form hitting its peak, the Jamaican’s argument to reclaim his spot in the favoured XI is strengthening game by game, leaving the manager with a decision to make going forward with his dynamic performances in mind.