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		</div><p>Aston Villa opened their Premier League campaign with a 1-0 home victory over 10-man Sheffield United, with Ezri Konsa netting the winner after Emiliano Martinez denied the visitors with a first-half penalty save.</p>
<p>Villa were playing with a man more than their opponents from the 12th minute when Blades captain John Egan was shown a straight red card having been deemed to have denied Ollie Watkins a goalscoring opportunity.</p>
<p>But it took a great stop from debutant Martinez to prevent them from falling behind in the 36th minute as the summer signing from Arsenal kept out John Lundstram’s spot-kick.</p>
<p>Konsa then headed home in the 63rd minute, having been teed up by fellow defender Tyrone Mings.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Aston Villa start the season with a win ð<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AVLSHU?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AVLSHU</a> <a href="https://t.co/jqFb3CCpU6">pic.twitter.com/jqFb3CCpU6</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Premier League (@premierleague) <a href="https://twitter.com/premierleague/status/1308117406670348288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>While Dean Smith’s Villa celebrate a winning start, the result leaves Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United pointless after two matches.</p>
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<p>Martinez was one of two players in the Villa starting line-up making their debut for the club, along with full-back Matty Cash, while there was a league bow for record-signing striker Watkins.</p>
<p>Wilder made three changes from his team’s 2-0 loss to Wolves a week earlier, with forward Oliver Burke among those coming in, for his league debut.</p>
<p>Cash was involved early on as he lofted a delivery to John McGinn, whose effort went off-target.</p>
<p>The visitors were then reduced to 10 men when Egan was red-carded by referee Graham Scott after tussling with Watkins as the striker attempted to latch on to a long ball forward from Mings, the decision standing after a VAR check.</p>
<p>As Villa attempted to take advantage, United – who replaced David McGoldrick with Ethan Ampadu around the half-hour mark – dealt well with the pressure that was applied, with Aaron Ramsdale having little problem collecting a Douglas Luiz header.</p>
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<p>The visitors were then handed the a golden chance to take the lead after Chris Basham went down in the box following a tackle from Matt Targett and Scott pointed to the spot.</p>
<p>Once another VAR check had been completed, Lundstram stepped up to take the penalty – and saw his effort from 12 yards pushed away in fine style by Martinez.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">We love him already. ð</p>
<p>What a debut, <a href="https://twitter.com/emimartinezz1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EmiMartinezz1</a>! ð <a href="https://t.co/hdfKMcprqT">pic.twitter.com/hdfKMcprqT</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1308119182735740930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>Conor Hourihane subsequently sent a shot into the stand in the 41st minute, and Watkins headed too high 10 minutes into the second half.</p>
<p>Eight minutes later Villa made the decisive breakthrough as Targett’s corner was flicked on by Mings and Konsa headed past Ramsdale.</p>
<p>The hosts’ subsequent attempts to add a second saw Jack Grealish send a couple of efforts wide, with Trezeguet and McGinn doing likewise.</p>
<p>But there was no further addition to the scoring and Smith’s team were up and running at the first time of asking.</p>
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