This was a game riddled in controversy and one that was ultimately settled not on the pitch but 70 miles away in a cubbyhole at Stockley Park, where the video assistant referee, Mike Dean, decided against awarding Southampton a seemingly blatant first-half penalty and then ruled Danny Ings offside to deny the striker an equaliser in stoppage time. This time Aston Villa prospered from another grey area of the rulebook, with Ross Barkley’s header proving the difference at full time after Ings’s late leveller was disallowed. When it boiled down to it, and not for the first time this season, it was a scrupulous examination: this time Ings’ armpit v Matty Cash’s backside. It was hard lines for Southampton but it was the referee Lee Mason’s failure to award a penalty before Barkley headed in Jack Grealish’s cross that grated with Ralph Hasenhüttl. “The handball was a good save from the player, good goalkeeping, but it was allowed – it is not even a decision for the VAR,” a frustrated Hasenhüttl said. “It was a fantastic save. It hurts very much.” As for the agonising offside, Hasenhüttl did his best to raise a smile. The decision was upheld by the VAR after the assistant flagged when Ings prodded in from Ryan Bertrand’s vicious strike, pushed into the path of Ings by the Villa goalkeeper Emi Martínez. “We cut all our [shirt] sleeves now in the dressing room,” he said. “Because if Ingsy had, he would have been onside.” These teams shared seven goals when they met at Villa Park last month so perhaps it was no surprise that this was another supercharged occasion. The talking point, inevitably, was not an entertaining clash of similar high-octane styles but how those stewing over endless replays and slow-mos on a myriad of screens came to allow Cash off scot-free. Ings did brilliantly, bamboozling Douglas Luiz inside the box with an exquisite flick before laying the ball on for Stuart Armstrong, whose vicious strike clearly struck Cash’s left arm. But Dean ruled against handball on the basis that the ball first grazed the Villa defender’s thigh en route to his arm, a rule Dean Smith pointed to. “The letter of the law is if it deflects off another part of your body then it can’t be given,” said the Villa head coach, who two weeks ago fumed at the rulebook in defeat at Manchester City, when Rodri won possession in an offside position in the buildup to scoring. “We have been on the better side of some marginal decisions for a change, which is nice, but it was a resolute performance.” Smith felt the goal was the telling moment of quality. The former Southampton left-back Matt Targett freed Grealish down the left and the Villa captain scooped a delicious first-time cross into the box for Barkley to power in four minutes before the interval. The ball seemed to hang in the air forever but Barkley arrived unchallenged to direct a header into the corner. Villa were not at their best but Barkley’s header earned a second win in six league matches. It was an ugly victory, eked out when John McGinn and Cash threw their bodies on the line, but Villa have now won 10 league games this season, eclipsing last season’s tally. This Villa side, however, are a different beast. Southampton, too, have won admirers for their fearlessness but are sliding after winning just one of their past eight league matches, though as Hasenhüttl was quick to point out in midweek, that win came against the champions. Things could have turned out differently had Southampton prospered from a late corner that led to three last-ditch blocks or if Ings ditched the home shirt for a vest before poking in the rebound. The crescendo was painful for Southampton, with Villa miraculously denying Jan Bednarek, Che Adams and then Jack Stephens before those all-too-familiar pesky dotted lines landed on the side of the visitors. “Just as well it wasn’t my backside,” tweeted McGinn, attempting to see the funny side.