Dean Smith has urged Aston Villa to win their final game and complete the great escape after a 1-0 victory against Arsenal put them in pole position for Premier League survival.
Trezeguet’s brilliant first-half winner saw the relegation-threatened side grab a crucial three points at Villa Park on Tuesday night.
Jack Grealish pays tribute to ‘father figure’ Dean Smith and says he has a great connections with his Aston Villa players
It lifted Villa out of the relegation zone for the first time since February and they head to West Ham for Sunday’s Premier League finale.
They are out of the drop zone on goal difference after Watford suffered a 4-0 hammering by Manchester City on Tuesday night.
Villa now lead the race to beat relegation ahead of Watford and Bournemouth having been seven points from safety three games ago.
Smith said: “There’s one game to go, similar to after the penalty shoot out at West Brom (in last season’s play-offs).
“All we have done is put it in our own hands and we have to put a performance in and get a win at West Ham. If we work as hard as we did and show the quality since the restart we have every chance.
“It was a big performance and an even bigger win. We knew we had to win at least one game to catch Watford up and to get that win was special.
“There was some heroic defending, Jack (Grealish) had his best game since football returned, Pepe’s (Reina) experience also helped the lads in front of him.
“I said before I feel we’re a fitter team now, the lockdown gave us that opportunity to get the lads into a better place. We felt these were the four games to target to get the wins we needed.”
Trezeguet, who scored a brace in the win over Crystal Palace, settled the game when he fired in low after Conor Hourihane’s 27th-minute corner whistled through the box.
Keinan Davis missed a fine late chance and John McGinn’s drive was saved by Emi Martinez.
Arsenal failed to fire or find the inspiration which helped them beat Liverpool and Manchester City in their two previous outings.
Eddie Nketiah’s header hit the post but the Gunners will need to win the FA Cup against Chelsea next month to return to Europe next season.
