Ross Barkley's first-half header was enough for Aston Villa to win 1-0 at Southampton, who were punished twice by VAR with the smallest of margins
It was a dramatic start to the St Mary's encounter when Southampton had a huge penalty shout turned down
 Stuart Armstrong's shot hit Matty Cash on the arm, but VAR official Mike Dean judged the ball to have hit the Aston Villa defender on the thigh first with the slightest of touches
Southampton played well in the first half but failed to have a shot on target and were penalised for their blunt attack when Ross Barkley (41) nodded home from a Jack Grealish cross just before half-time
Both sides had chances in the second half - in which Southampton added two more names to their injury list in Ibrahima Diallo and Theo Walcott - and Saints thought they had snatched a late equaliser, but Danny Ings was flagged for offside
The VAR review showed the striker was offside by the intricacies of a shirt sleeve, with the offside lines showing it was mere millimetres out of place
Aston Villa's valiant defending in the second half helped secure the points, sending them into eighth above Arsenal and Chelsea
 Southampton remain in 11th as their recent drop in form continued, and they have now won just one of their last eight Premier League games
The first VAR intervention of the evening came within 10 minutes of kick-off
 Armstrong's strike hit Cash on the arm, with referee Lee Mason turning down the penalty claim before VAR stepped in for a review
 However, after two minutes of replays, the decision was upheld, with Dean judging that the ball hit Cash's thigh before his arm with the lightest of touches
Southampton played some nice football in the first half but only had one real chance of note in the 31st minute
 Oriol Romeu picked out Armstrong on the left before the Scot cut the ball back for Ryan Bertrand at the top of the area
 However, his strike went just wide
 Soon after, Ollie Watkins fired an effort goalwards after some superb play between Grealish and Matt Targett on the left, but Alex McCarthy leapt to keep the striker at bay
Aston Villa took an unexpected lead just before the break
 Unsurprisingly, the build-up came again on the left flank as Targett's long pass found Grealish in behind replacement right-back James Ward-Prowse
 The Villa captain fired a cross into the area, which was emphatically headed home by Barkley
The second half lacked chances, but Southampton's evening went from bad to worse when they lost two players to injury within five minutes around the hour
 Diallo went down first, followed by Walcott, with both needing to be replaced
 Moussa Djenepo and Che Adams came on in their places
Southampton had their first shot on target in the 70th minute
 Aston Villa initially cleared a free-kick, but Saints managed to keep it alive
 Ings flashed the ball through for Adams, but Emiliano Martinez made a superb save
 The Southampton forward tried to flick home the rebound, but Cash and Martinez both helped to keep it out
The Aston Villa goalkeeper - registering his 10th Premier League clean sheet of the season - was once again the hero as Southampton pressed for an equaliser
 He made a brilliant, sharp stop to keep out a Jan Bednarek header, before Adams and Jack Stephens saw their rebounded efforts blocked by John McGinn and Cash respectively on the line
Southampton thought they had snatched a late equaliser, but Ings' effort was ruled out for offside
 Martinez had made another sensational stop to deny Adams, but the England striker was lurking to bundle the ball home
 However, the offside flag was raised and, after another decision made on the smallest of margins, VAR confirmed the goal would remain disallowed
It was an eventful evening for Cash
 It began with what should arguably have been a penalty, but he escaped by the slightest of touches on his thigh
 He was then inconspicuously involved in the Ings offside
But his defensive work was good overall, especially in the second half
 He made some superb blocks when called upon - two overall, the joint-highest in the Aston Villa team - and was especially useful when Adams went close after Southampton's first shot on target
Cash was also in place when Saints peppered the Aston Villa goal with shots, blocking an effort from Stephens
 There is no doubting his part in Villa's clean sheet
"I saw an interesting game and I am not sure we deserved to lose today
 They had one chance, one big chance and they scored that
 We had more, I think
"Especially in the second half, we played some good stuff
 At the moment, it is a little bit hard to take
"In the first half, the penalty, I have not seen it yet but they have told me that it is a clear handball as he blocks the shot on the line
 It is a clear goal otherwise
"It fits with the whole situation, the injuries
 We are a little bit unlucky
 The offside goal from Ingsy, if you take the line here or there
 They see it how they see it
 Football is not always fair and at the moment it is not for us
"There are so many people discussing handball in the box and I don't want to step in this queue
 Let us concentrate on the things that we can do better and not discuss too much these situations
"Everyone can decide for themselves if I should be overruling VAR or not
 It is not for me to do it
 Let them do their job
 Let us try to do our job
"We are struggling at the moment with injuries but also with scoring goals
 That is the reason why at the moment it is tough for us to win games
"The reason why I am not too worried is because we are having chances but the final ball does not want to go in
 The precision of the final shot is not perfect
 This we can do better
""It was a tough performance against a tough team
 But what a lovely goal
 Great ball from Jack and great header from Ross
"Then we had to be resolute
 We got some great blocks at the end there
 And some VAR decisions
 We have not had too many of them, it feels good