Aston Villa suffered a major setback in their Premier League title push after slipping to a shock 1-0 home defeat against 10-man Brentford, who secured their first-ever league victory at Villa Park.

Despite being reduced to 10 men following Kevin Schade’s first red card in senior football, Brentford showed remarkable resilience to claim all three points at the 11th attempt.

With Ollie Watkins sidelined through injury, January signing Tammy Abraham was handed his second Villa debut and made his first Premier League appearance since 2021. The striker, who scored 26 goals during his loan spell at the club in 2018/19, went close early on after being played through by Morgan Rogers, but was denied by an alert Caoimhín Kelleher.

Douglas Luiz also returned for his second spell with the club and nearly marked the occasion with an assist, delivering a precise free-kick for Ezri Konsa, whose effort drifted wide from close range.

Despite dominating possession and enjoying a numerical advantage after Schade was dismissed in the 42nd minute for kicking out at Matty Cash, Villa found themselves behind at half-time. Just minutes after the red card, Dango Ouattara stunned the home crowd by rifling a superb left-footed strike into the far top corner for his fourth league goal of the season.

Villa thought they had drawn level shortly after the restart when Abraham tapped in from Kelleher’s parry, only for VAR to rule the goal out after determining the ball had gone out of play in the build-up.

The hosts continued to press, with Matty Cash, Douglas Luiz, and Morgan Rogers all testing Kelleher, but the Brentford goalkeeper and his defence stood firm.

The victory lifts Brentford up to seventh in the table, while third-placed Villa now sit seven points behind the league leaders, dealing a significant blow to their title ambitions.