Aston Villa bounced back from their FA Cup defeat to Stevenage with a 2-1 home win over Leeds United as pressure builds on Jesse Marsch
Leon Bailey's early goal on the break gave Unai Emery's team the advantage at Villa Park and the hosts had to withstand heavy pressure from Leeds before Emiliano Buendia doubled their lead in the second half after more good work by Bailey - and a VAR review
Leeds had chances, Marsch later referring to it as the "most complete performance" since he arrived
 Rodrigo had a shot cleared off the line by debutant Alex Moreno and another disallowed for offside, while Emiliano Martinez made a spectacular save from Jack Harrison
 Patrick Bamford finally pulled one back after brilliant work by Wilfried Gnonto
But there was to be no repeat of the sucker-punch Villa suffered against League Two opposition in their previous outing
 Emery's men were able to see it out to secure a fourth win in six Premier League games under him and move level on points with Chelsea
Leeds' situation is more perilous
 Although this was a spirited performance, it was a flawed one too, with sections of the away support chanting for Marsch to go
 They remain two points off the drop zone and without a win in seven games in all competitions
Leeds started brightly but were punished within three minutes on the counter-attack by some precision play from Villa
 Ashley Young picked out the right pass before Boubacar Kamara fed Bailey in the right channel who finished superbly into the far corner
The Holte End loved that but saw little of the ball at their end of the pitch for the remainder of the half
 There is lots to like about Leeds, their energy penning Villa in as the home side tried - and often failed - to play out from the back
 But they were so wasteful
Moreno, on as an early substitute for the injured Lucas Digne, did well to clear the ball off the line but Rodrigo might have done better
 Harrison had what looked an even easier chance from close range but saw his attempt clambered away remarkably by the Argentina goalkeeper
They were punished in the second half and it was Bailey who was the architect again, skipping inside and firing off a shot that was too hot for Illan Meslier to handle
 Buendia nodded over him from a seemingly offside position but the replays proved otherwise
That was when the stifled chants for Marsch to go began but Leeds kept pushing and pulled one back thanks to Gnonto
 The young winger looks to be a serious talent but he had composure too in setting up substitute Bamford - via Joe Gelhardt - to put the game back in the balance
It made for a nervy ending with Villa unable to finish it on the counter-attack
 Ultimately, the control of Villa won out over the chaos of Leeds, but it was close
 Marsch will feel aggrieved
 Emery is the one entitled to be feel more optimistic about the future
"Two different halves
 The first half we struggled more than we wanted to, but they had a lot of energy - pushing, pushing and a lot of duels
 We needed to stay calm and try to break the first pressure to attack the spaces
 We scored an amazing goal, and it was an amazing transition
 But we needed our goalkeeper to save some very good actions from them
"The second half was very different
 We were speaking about fighting face-to-face in the duels, but we needed to keep the possession for longer to impose ourselves and control the game
 We did amazing in the second half
 We scored the second goal, had chances to score the third
 They had one or two chances and they scored
"But I think the second half was very different and our performance was better
 We are playing matches and we are trying to control games with good positioning and trying not to concede a lot of chances to the opposition
 But they have very good players
 They tried to put the ball into our box and they had chances
"But I am so happy for the victory and our performance because in the last match Bailey missed two very good chances and maybe we could have won the match against Wolves
 Today, he scored and he has done the action in the second goal
 I think it is amazing for his confidence
 The speed today with the support of the team was very good
""We displayed that we were the better team but more importantly for me, it's the best complete performance we've had as a team
 Obviously, it's frustrating given the fact points are at a premium right now and you look at the table and there's stress in that situation, but if we can play like this, then I think we have something to build on
"I've been edging and pushing the players to grasp more and more, and to commit to the way we want to play, to be brave in the way we want to play - and I thought we did that to the best of our ability tonight
 I thought it was a really positive performance and something to build on
 If we play like that more often, we will get more points
"There's so much to play for, we're not even halfway through the season
 There's no panic, it's just really trying to kick-start the way that we want to play
 If we do that, we have enough quality and intelligence to achieve our goals
 This was a big positive for me
 I would take more losses and good performances because it can help really push us forward to be the team we want to be
 A big positive
" return to action in the Premier League next Saturday with the visit of ; kick-off 3pm
face Championship side in a third round replay in the FA Cup on Wednesday at Elland Road; kick-off 7
45pm
Jesse Marsch's side are back at home when they take on in the Premier League next Sunday, live on ; kick-off 2pm
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