Aston Villa 0-3 Leeds United: Patrick Bamford scores hat-trick as hosts suffer their first Premier League defeat of the season

Patrick Bamford scored a superb hat-trick for Leeds United as they inflicted a first Premier League defeat of the season for Aston Villa on Friday night.

Leeds striker Bamford scored all three of his goals in the second half of the match as the visitors won 3-0 at Villa Park.

Aston Villa came into the game in fine form having won all four of their opening matches. However, an inspired Bamford put an end to their perfect run with three excellent finishes.

Leeds rose to third as a result of that victory – prior to the rest of the weekend’s fixtures taking place.

Their performance warranted more goals as Aston Villa struggled to keep up with Marcelo Bielsa’s newly-promoted side.

Bamford, who has now scored six goals in as many matches, spurned two chances early in the game before his strike-partner Rodrigo also missed another two opportunities in the first half.

Bielsa’s men almost shot themselves in the foot as Luke Ayling had to make amends for his own mistake and clear the ball off the line as Jack Grealish pounced on a stray pass to have an effort on goal.

Following half-time, the deadlock was finally broken as Bamford reacted quickest to bury the ball into the bottom corner after Rodrigo saw his shot palmed away by Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.

Former Chelsea man Bamford then proceeded to put the game to bed with two fabulous solo efforts that found the top corner of Martinez’s net.

Speaking post-match Aston Villa manager Dean Smith admitted his side reacted badly to falling behind for the first time in the season and were lucky to not concede more. ‘That is the first time we have been behind in a game and we didn’t handle it very well,’ he said.

‘They scored the first goal and we got worse and they were very good. We probably got away with a 3-0 in the end with the chances they had.’