Referee Martin Atkinson pulled a yellow card from his pocket and booked the Bournemouth right-back.
The foul handed Aston Villa a prime opportunity: a free kick positioned dead center, roughly twenty-eight meters from the goal line. It was an ideal distance for a direct strike.
Grealish, McGinn, and Theodore all gathered around the spot.
Knowing his direct free-kick execution lacked the required venom, Theodore backed away, leaving the stage to his captain.
Atkinson blew his whistle.
Grealish took his run-up and struck the ball clean with his right boot!
Boom!
The ball cleared the Bournemouth human wall with terrifying pace, generating a vicious dip as it plummeted toward the goal.
The moment of truth arrived for Aaron Ramsdale, but the young keeper looked visibly rattled.
Before the ball reached the goal line, it took a sharp bounce off the turf, leaving Ramsdale grasping at thin air.
The ball tore into the back of the net!
2-0.
"Jack Grealish!" Tyler roared over the Sky Sports broadcast. "A direct free kick of the highest order! The bounce completely deceived Ramsdale, and the Villa captain doubles their advantage!"
Grealish wheeled away in pure ecstasy.
He jogged over to the corner flag and, to the amusement of the crowd, broke into his signature, unconventional Kamehameha celebration.
On Twitter, the global fanbase flooded the timeline, ruthless as always.
@HolteEnder82: What a hit! But Jesus Christ, Jack, never do that celebration again!
@EPL_Scout: Grealish's ball-striking is elite. His Kamehameha makes my eyes tear up!
@BrummieBoy: You just know Theo taught him that in training and told him it looked cool!
...
Down two goals, Bournemouth had zero room for retreat.
Eddie Howe urged his men forward, instructing them to throw caution to the wind and chase the game.
With over ten minutes remaining in the first half, Howe didn't demand an instant equalizer; he just needed one goal to shift the momentum.
Sensing the shift, Dean Smith countered.
The experienced Villa manager ordered his squad to drop into a rock-solid defensive shape. Magic to counter magic.
In the forty-second minute, Bournemouth mounted a sustained attack. A series of slick passes pushed the ball out to right-back Charlie Daniels.
True to their tactical identity, Bournemouth relied on whipping crosses in from the flanks. Daniels floated a ball into the box.
Tyrone Mings rose highest, powering a defensive header out of the penalty area.
The clearance looped toward the edge of the D.
Waiting underneath it was Theodore.
Also lurking in his blind spot was Bournemouth's defensive midfielder, Jefferson Lerma.
As Theodore turned to kill the ball with his back to goal, Lerma closed in fast.
If Lerma managed to strip him in that dangerous area, Bournemouth would have a free run at Heaton's goal.
It was a critical moment.
Theodore pinned the ball under his left boot, felt Lerma commit behind him, and executed a flawless Maradona turn.
He dragged the ball back and spun cleanly, leaving the Colombian midfielder lunging at empty air.
"He leaves him for dead!" Tyler praised. "A beautiful roulette from the teenager to evade the press! His technical growth since arriving in England is staggering."
Having broken the press, Theodore drove forward and slipped a pass out to Douglas Luiz on the right wing.
The Brazilian debutant didn't take an extra touch.
He whipped a low, driven cross into the box with his right foot.
Wesley had timed his run.
The massive striker met the delivery with a sharp, right-footed poke, stabbing the ball past Ramsdale.
3-0!
Aston Villa had effectively killed the game before the halftime whistle!
Three minutes later, Atkinson blew for the break.
Villa marched down the tunnel with a commanding three-goal lead.
Dean Smith was thrilled, while down the hall, Eddie Howe was absolutely furious.
Inside the away dressing room, Howe made an aggressive tactical adjustment, hooking Joshua King and throwing on the pacey Jordon Ibe, who wore the number ten shirt, to try and inject some life into his attack.
Fifteen minutes later, the second half kicked off.
Ibe looked lively, dropping deep into the midfield to demand the ball.
In the forty-eighth minute, Lerma found him in the center circle.
Instead of linking play with his teammates, Ibe decided to put his head down and take on the entire Villa midfield by himself.
"Ibe tries to go straight through the middle," Tyler noted, his tone laced with doubt. "A brave run, but he has an absolute mountain to climb against this Villa midfield."
Tyler's skepticism was justified. Three seconds later, Theodore and McGinn collapsed on the winger, executing a brutal double-team that stripped Ibe of the ball effortlessly.
The turnover handed Villa a lethal counter-attack.
"Foul him! Take him down!" Howe screamed from the touchline, seeing Theodore pick his head up with the ball at his feet.
He ordered Ibe to commit the tactical foul, but Ibe was too slow.
Theodore launched a raking, cross-field pass that dropped perfectly onto the chest of Anwar El Ghazi on the right wing.
Using his physical advantage, El Ghazi bullied the aging Daniels, cut inside, and unleashed a heavy shot!
Ramsdale managed to parry it behind for a corner as Grealish jogged over to the flag.
"Corner to Villa," Tyler announced. "We saw what happened the last time Bjorn attacked a set piece against Spurs. Let's see if the teenager can replicate that scorching form tonight."
Online, the Villa fans were buzzing.
@VillaTillIDie: Put it on Theo's head. It's a guaranteed goal.
@NorwegianReds: Bournemouth's defenders are getting cooked, Go on, Theo!
..
Inside the box, the Bournemouth defenders looked terrified.
Every man in a red and black shirt knew about the teenager's aerial dominance.
Howe deployed two massive center-backs, Nathan Ake and Steve Cook, to double-team Theodore, desperate to block his run.
Grealish whipped a flat, rapid cross toward the back post.
The ball streaked through the night sky like a missile.
Theodore was already moving.
The moment the ball reached the far post, he launched himself into the air!
Ake and Cook went up with him, creating a massive three-man collision!
Ake stood at 180cm, while Cook matched Theodore's height exactly at 185cm. Neither defender held a physical advantage over the teenager.
Thud.
Theodore won the battle.
He absorbed the contact, knocking Cook entirely off balance.
Relying on his elite reading of the flight path, he positioned himself in front of Ake and snapped his forehead through the ball.
The header thudded past Ramsdale into the back of the net!
4-0.
"Theodore Bjorn!" Tyler's voice boomed through Villa Park. "He rises highest again! That is the final nail in the Bournemouth coffin! An absolute masterclass in the air!"
@HolteEnder99: He actually scored again! The kid is unstoppable in the air!
@EPL_Analyst: Theo needs to switch to striker. His conversion rate is terrifying.
@SpursHub: He just out-jumped Ake and Cook at the same time. We aren't the only ones who can't defend him.
After seeing the net ripple, Theodore jogged to the corner flag, looked directly down the lens of the broadcast camera, and threw a sharp, perfectly executed left hook.
Tyler chuckled in the commentary booth. "And there is the celebration! A nod to that infamous incident against Romania. The Holte End will absolutely love the cheek of that."
Villa Park rocked as forty thousand home fans roared his name.
By this point, Theodore had logged a goal, an assist, and a string of crucial defensive interceptions, matching the dominance of his Premier League debut.
Down on the touchline, Eddie Howe looked completely defeated.
He had played his trump card with the Ibe substitution, but it only resulted in another turnover and another Villa goal.
Despair settled over the Bournemouth squad.
For the remainder of the match, Bournemouth threw bodies forward, but they couldn't breach Dean Smith's defensive wall.
The clock bled out.
After ninety minutes of grueling football, Aston Villa secured a 4-0 thrashing of Bournemouth, notching their second consecutive victory of the new Premier League campaign.
Theodore, with his goal and assist, walked away with the Man of the Match award once again.
The massive win propelled Aston Villa to second place in the Premier League table with six points, trailing Manchester City only on goal difference.
...
The following afternoon, the draw for the Europa League group stages took place in Monaco.
As the reigning FA Cup champions, Aston Villa were drawn into Group K.
It was a brutal draw.
They would face Portuguese heavyweights Braga, Turkish giants Beşiktaş, and Slovakian outfit Slovan Bratislava.
Aside from Slovan Bratislava, both Braga and Beşiktaş were seasoned European campaigners, boasting domestic titles and extensive Champions League experience.
Navigating Group K would be a massive test for a squad that had only just escaped the English second tier.
For Dean Smith, however, Europe could wait.
With two weeks until their first continental fixture, the sole focus remained domestic survival.
On August 24th, Villa would host Everton at Villa Park for the third round of the Premier League.
While Everton didn't belong to the traditional Big Six, their squad possessed significantly more quality than Bournemouth.
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