London: Aston Villa enjoyed a their first home game of the season with a convincing 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers.
Gabriel Agbanlahor, Emile Heskey and Darren Bent ensured that Alex McLeish won his first competitive match at Villa Park since his controversial move from Birmingham City.
Blackburn, who's goal came from Morten Ganst Pederson early in the second half, continued their poor start to the season with the pressure mounting on boss Steve Kean.
Aston Villa created the first opening through Gabriel Agbonlahor on the ten minute mark when he used his pace to get past Michel Salgado to cross towards Darren Bent, but Ryan Nelson cleared for a corner. From the corner, a scramble in the area lead to Richard Dunne volleying high over the bar.
However, Villa didn't have to wait long until they scored as on the 12th minute, Agbonlahor received the ball from Darren Bent on the right. He cut inside past Salgado but this time curled it beautifully past Paul Robinson to give Villa the lead and open his account for the season.
Villa seemed to grow in confidence after the goal, with the home fans starting to enjoy what they were seeing. They was a break in play though on the 17th minute when Blackburn’s David Dunn appeared to stamp on Luke Young after a coming together. Referee Stuart Atwell took no action choosing to calm down the two players, but on another day, Dunn could have seen red.
Shortly after, Blackburn had their best chance of the half when David Goodwillie, making his first start since his £2.8 million move from Dundee United, went close on the 19th minute as he picked up a David Hoilett cross and hit a thumping strike which went just over the bar.
Villa were still the dominant though and doubled their lead on the 25th minute. Fabian Delph picked out Agbonlahor who was able to slide the ball across the box and despite falling over, Heskey produced a low shot past the helpless Robinson. That was Heskey’s 110th Premier League goal and Villa fans will be hoping for more of the same this season from the former Wigan man.
Blackburn looked continually fragile at the back without the influential Christopher Samba who is still sidelined through injury and had to contend with wave after wave of Villa attacks. Agbonlahor went close again on the 39th minute when received a floated cross from Young at the far post but his looping header went narrowly over.
Rovers needed to start the second half with a goal to get back in the game and that is just what they did. On the 51th minute, Hoilett was able to move freely down the left before crossing for Pederson to nod in from close range past Shay Given.
Albrighton, who came on for Agbanlahor, was unlucky not to restore Villa’s two-goal lead as he was allowed time and space by the Blackburn defence to shoot from distance which narrowly crept past Robinson’s right-hand post on the 63rd minute.
Villa did restore their two-goal lead not shortly after though as captain Stiliyan Petrov shot from distance, Greg Hanley was able to block the shot but it rebounded of him to Bent who made no mistake, smashing it past Robinson into the net.
This seemingly killed off Blackburn’s comeback as Steve Kean tried to change his team round by making a double substitution with Mauro Formica coming on for Roberts and new signing Radosav Petrovic making his debut, replacing Pederson.
It made little difference though with the only effort coming from Formica in the last five minutes but the Argentine's shot from distance went well over Given’s bar as Villa comfortably played out the game.
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