With the race for the almost finished title and the relegation battle is increasingly like a formality, the race for Europe is the place where the scenarios are formed towards the last stages of this Premier League campaign.
For Aston Villa, playing European football has wreaked havoc this season with the Unai Emery team not having won its previous seven games that came after a match in the Champions League.
Here in Brentford, they ended this terrible statistic with an impressive victory which brought them up to 7th and only two points behind Manchester City in fourth position.
The Emery team was to be done without Emi Martinez, who was absent with a back injury, while their man in shape Marco Asensio was also injured and did not make the trip to the capital either.
But it was a familiar face to Ollie Watkins, who provided the decisive moment with his 13th goal in the Premier League of the season where he formerly called to the house.
Emery made two changes compared to the mid -week victory of Villa in Brugge with Robin Olsen replacing Martinez for his first start to the season in the Premier League, while Jacob Ramsey was preferred to Marcus Rashford.
There was a lack of quality in the last third when the two teams entered the break without objective
Ollie Watkins scored four minutes after restarting when she returned to the West London Club
Marcus Rashford came during the second half to put another cameo living in a villa shirt
For Brentford, Frank only made the only change in his draw in Everton ten days ago, the Skipper Christian Norgaard recovering from a concussion and directly in the starting eleven.
Brentford started on the front foot with Olsen may be lucky not to be penalized for picking up a handbag of Axel Disasi, but Villa became the match and had the best chance of half-time, just after the quarter of an hour.
The wonderful sex delivery of your Tielemans has chosen an unmarked Mings Tyrone, which made the perfect race but hit the ball directly in the hands of Mark Flecken.
Since this land has experienced more goals in the Premier League than any other field this season, it was all the more surprising that this confrontation was tirelessly at half-time.
Emery chose to send Matty Cash on the right in place of Leon Bailey to the break, in order to limit the impact of the Keane Lewis-Potter de Brentford and four minutes in the second half, the blocking was broken in a deadly villa counter.
Ramsey found Watkins on the left flank, which silenced the huts with a right foot strike which made a slight deviation from Nathan Collins and defeated Flecken.
For Watkins, it was a sixth goal in six games against bees since his departure from West London for Birmingham in 2020.
A minute later, he transformed the supplier when he installed Morgan Rogers, who pulled in front of Flecken, but villa celebrations were interrupted because Var showed that Watkins was offside in the accumulation.
Morgan Rogers thought he had scored the second in villa but saw his goal excluded by Var for Offseid
Villa has managed to retain Brentford’s pressure to guarantee a vital victory in the race for Europe
The side of UAI Emery is just a point of Manchester City which is seated in fourth place
This decision seemed to light a spark at Brentford, which increased the bet and struck the door of the villa.
Axel Disasi roars with pleasure when he put a vital block before Lewis-Pot’s efforts hit the post, while Frank was furious when Cash and Disasi accidentally collided with Kevin Schade in the region, but with the ball not in the field of the game, there was no penalty for Brentford.
The local team had another call was distant when Disasi contacted Schade in the box, but Var judged that it was minimal and not enough to overthrow the decision of Jarred Gillett.
In these last stages, Olsen saved from Schade before the Villa goalkeeper dropped the ball into the box and after a burst of activity, Norgaard fired widely.
With Brenford to pursue a leveler, Villa should have finished the game on the counter when Rogers found Watkins, who had all the time in the world but scrambled the ball in Flekken.
But that did not prove to be expensive when Villa held their third consecutive victory and a crucial white sheet which will undoubtedly strengthen his confidence before the leg back against club Brugge on Wednesday, where a place in the last eight in the Champions League is waiting.
For Brentford, after winning seven of their first eight home games in the Premier League this season, the Bees are now without victory in their last seven home. Barely the kind of shape if you want to be in European places in May.