After Pau Torres was injured last weekend, Victor Nilsson Lindelöf has started two straight matches as a center back at Aston Villa this week.
2-1 against Basel in the Europa League was followed up on Sunday with 3-2 against West Ham in the Premier League – the ninth consecutive victory, all competitions included, for the in-form third-placed Aston Villa.
The Birmingham club struggled for the three-pointer in London, after Lindelöf's centre-back colleague Ezri Konsa had a difficult first half. First he fumbled with the ball when West Ham scored 1–0 and when the home team made it 2–1 it was Konsa who cancelled out the offside of the goal scorer Jarrod Bowen.
Aston Villa turned things around thanks to two goals from Morgan Rogers in the second half. Lindelöf drove the ball up and played to the winning goal, but it was Rogers who did the big job when he neatly drilled home 3–2 in the 79th minute.
In the Premier League table, Aston Villa is three points ahead of first-place Arsenal, and just one point behind second-place Manchester City, who beat Crystal Palace 3-0 away after two goals from Erling Braut Haaland.
Victor Nilsson Lindelöf has only played a total of 25 minutes in the Premier League since joining "Villa", but the fact that he will now get more playing time will also please the national football team's national team captain Graham Potter. He wants his team captain to be in match form when Sweden play the World Cup play-off against Ukraine on March 26.
