Aston Villa’s Tammy Abraham grabs dramatic victory after Sunderland rally

The finish was chaotic but, when the dust settles, this perhaps was the afternoon when Aston Villa made a decisive spurt for the finish line to claim Champions League qualication. As Tammy Abraham touched in the winner three minutes into injury time, Unai Emery ran on to the pitch in celebration. Yet just a minute earlier Habib Diarra had been sent clean through with a chance of his own to win it. Emi Martínez, though, stretched up to save his dink, and the road was cleared for the Villa winner.

It was a game played amid a strange spirit of relaxation, with both sides having effectively achieved their ambitions for the season before kick-off: for Sunderland, avoiding the drop, and for Villa qualifying for the Champions League; Emery’s fifth Europa League success, itself a potential route into the premier competition, may still come as a bonus. This was just Villa’s fifth win in 15 league games since their run of eight league wins in a row came to an end in late December, and as a result they now have a 10-point lead over Chelsea in sixth with five games remaining.

Sunderland still need a point to be mathematically sure of staying up but realistically they have been safe since winning the Tyne-Wear derby before the international break. European qualification was always a distant dream, and would bring with it strains that this squad may not yet be ready to withstand; for them the main goal now is to finish above Newcastle, whom they lead by four points.

It was a slightly odd game as well in that, for both sides, at least in the formative stages of the contest before everything opened up later on, the majority of the attacking threat came on the right.

Quite apart from delivering the corner that Amadou Onana headed against the bar, John McGinn was a constant menace making runs in and around Reinildo, while for Sunderland Chris Rigg was far more involved from a creative point of view than Enzo Le Fée – at least until he was withdrawn after 63 minutes as Villa began to take control. Tyrone Mings, meanwhile, returning to the Villa side after a month out, had the better of an extremely physical battle with the Sunderland centre-forward Brian Brobbey.

Wilson Isidor equalises for Sunderland just a minute after teammate Trai Hume made it 3-2 against Aston Villa. Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images