Soccer Football - Premier League - Sunderland v Aston Villa - Stadium of Light, Sunderland, Britain - September 21, 2025 Aston Villa's Matty Cash celebrates scoring their first goal with teammates REUTERS/Scott Heppell
SUNDERLAND, England (Reuters) -Aston Villa finally registered a Premier League goal at the fifth time of asking but a victory remained elusive as they could only draw 1-1 at 10-man Sunderland on Sunday.
Unai Emery's side were the only team in the top seven divisions in England without a goal ahead of the clash and were hoping to avoid becoming the third team in top-flight history not to score in their first five games.
Matty Cash ended the drought to put his side ahead in the 67th minute with a swerving 25-metre effort.
But despite being a man down following Reinildo's red card in the 33rd minute, Sunderland created more chances than a lacklustre Villa and were only behind for eight minutes.
Granit Xhaka's headed pass found Wilson Isidor and he finished with his right foot.
Villa did threaten in the latter stages with Harvey Elliott missing a chance and Ollie Watkins an even better one when he failed to connect properly with Jadon Sancho's cross, but defeat would have been harsh on Sunderland.
Sunderland moved to seventh place with eight points while stuttering Villa climbed one spot to 18th with three, but are still in the bottom three.
Emery still has credit in the bank after taking Villa into last season's Champions League but he will need results quickly or the pressure will begin to mount.
"We are disappointed not because of the result but how (we played), we need to work to recover our identity and the style we want to be," Emery said. "We need to recover some confidence.
"I'm a little worried, not because where we are in the table but because we are not playing with our identity."
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond and Toby Davis)
