Ward-Prowse has a happy birthday

James Ward-Prowse scored two free kicks in the first half on his 26^th birthday as Southampton won 4-3 at Villa Park.

The English midfielder also set up Jannik Vestergaard for the opening goal, while Danny Ings added the fourth with a superb strike from distance.

James Ward-Prowse is the first player to score two direct free-kicks in the first half of a #PL match#AVLSOU pic.twitter.com/U0GoU8G6pL

— Premier League (@premierleague) November 1, 2020

Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side move up to third in the Premier League table with the win while Dean Smith’s side drop down to seventh having lost their past two games conceding seven goals.

Tyrone Mings headed home from a Jack Grealish cross in the 62^nd minute and then Villa scored twice in stoppage time via an Ollie Watkins penalty after Grealish was brought down in the box, and a long range shot from Grealish that caught out Alex McCarthy at the near post.

Despite second-half strikes from @OfficialTM_3, Ollie Watkins and @JackGrealish, Southampton take all three points this afternoon.#AVLSOU pic.twitter.com/uJYGflTaiU

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) November 1, 2020

Stats

Ward-Prowse became the first player to score two direct free-kicks in the first half of a Premier League game. The Southampton player has scored eight direct free-kicks in the league – overtaking former legend Matt Le Tissier.

Since the start of last season, only Jamie Vardy (29) has scored more league goals than Danny Ings (27). Also, no player has scored more from outside the box than Ings (5) since then.

Villa have lost back-to-back league games for the first time since July, after going eight games without defeat.