Dean Smith made the change without hesitation, hauling off the injured Grealish for Douglas Luiz.
Because Douglas Pereira's reckless challenge had taken place inside the box, the referee pointed straight to the spot.
Penalty to Aston Villa!
Grealish was the designated penalty taker, but with the captain limping down the tunnel in agony, the burden shifted.
Theodore grabbed the ball.
The moment he placed it on the spot, Vodafone Park unleashed a deafening wave of whistles and jeers.
The Turkish ultras tried to rattle him, creating a wall of pure noise to shatter his focus.
Theodore stood deadpan. Hands resting on his hips, his icy stare locked onto the Beşiktaş goalkeeper, Loris Karius.
Karius was a familiar face in English football, though for all the wrong reasons. His high-profile blunders in the 2018 Champions League final for Liverpool had derailed his career, making him the target of relentless abuse.
Seeking an escape, the German keeper had taken a loan move to Istanbul to rebuild his shattered confidence.
To his credit, he had found his footing in Turkey, establishing himself as the undisputed number one with a string of solid performances.
Up in the Sky Sports broadcast gantry, Daren Fletcher set the scene. "Theodore Bjorn steps up. Seventeen years old, facing down Loris Karius in the cauldron of Vodafone Park. Gary, does the keeper have a chance?"
Gary Neville let out a wry chuckle. "It's a huge ask, Daren. Karius has a history of crumbling under intense pressure. Those ghosts from Kyiv are hard to banish, and this kid is absolutely ruthless."
The referee cleared the box and blew his whistle.
The ultras behind the net screamed, waving their arms to break his concentration. Theodore ignored the hostility.
He began his slow, deliberate run-up, opened his hips, and stroked the ball low and hard into the bottom right corner.
Karius guessed wrong, diving to his left.
The net rippled!
Aston Villa led 4-1.
Theodore now boasted a ridiculous stat line: two goals and two assists, pulling the strings on every single goal.
Jogging away, Theodore pressed his index finger to his lips, shushing the raging Beşiktaş faithful.
The gesture poured gasoline on the fire, prompting a fresh wave of venom and flying plastic cups from the stands.
To twist the knife, Theodore raised four fingers to the crowd, a cold reminder of the scoreline.
The fans were livid, but beyond hurling abuse, they were impotent.
The taunting enraged the Beşiktaş players.
Center-backs Necip Uysal and Domagoj Vida stormed over, getting in the teenager's face and shoving him, spewing insults.
Theodore didn't flinch.
He stood his ground, trading verbal blows with the two veterans until his teammates arrived to back him up.
The match limped into stoppage time.
Thanks to the constant fouls, brawls, and injuries, the fourth official held up the board: seven added minutes.
"Seven minutes of agony left for the hosts," Fletcher noted. "And Villa might not be done yet."
The Beşiktaş players looked dead on their feet.
Mentally broken by the scoreline, they assumed Villa would just stroke the ball around and kill the clock. They wanted the nightmare to end.
They were wrong.
John McGinn and Theodore triggered a ruthless high press.
Catching the exhausted Turks off guard, Theodore snapped into a tackle, winning the ball clean in the center circle.
He popped up and slid a crisp, penetrating pass into the path of Anwar El Ghazi.
Coming on as a late substitute, El Ghazi had fresh legs. The Dutchman took the ball in stride and charged headlong at the retreating defense.
Uysal and Vida converged, trying to force him wide.
El Ghazi dropped his shoulder, chopped the ball onto his right boot, and left both defenders in the dust.
Bearing down on goal, El Ghazi kept his cool.
He opened his body and stroked a clinical finish past the onrushing Karius into the far corner.
5-1.
An absolute demolition job!
When the final whistle blew, the stadium echoed with furious whistles.
Theodore walked toward the tunnel, looked up at the raging ultras, and raised five fingers.
...
Down in the press room, Dean Smith was fuming.
The manager used his post-match conference to launch a blistering attack on Beşiktaş's brutal tactics.
"That wasn't a football match out there, it was a wrestling bout," Smith told the media, his face flushed with anger.
"I don't usually comment on the opposition, but their behavior was an absolute disgrace."
He leaned into the microphone, his tone hardened. "My players were subjected to malicious, cynical challenges all night. They tried to kick us off the pitch to disrupt our rhythm. They wanted a fight. Well, they got one, and they failed."
Smith allowed a prideful smile to touch his lips. "We scored five goals in their backyard. It proves that thuggery won't stop this team from playing our football."
With two goals and three assists to his name, Theodore walked away with the Man of the Match award, having orchestrated every single piece of Villa's five-goal masterpiece.
...
Dean Smith wasn't the only one furious in the press room.
Theodore, typically composed, used his time at the microphone to deliver a stinging assessment of the opposition.
"From the very first minute, Beşiktaş's players had no intention of playing football," Theodore said coldly, staring down the Turkish journalists. "They only wanted to fight. The players on the pitch tried to kick us off the park, and the fans in the stands constantly provoked us."
He paused, a faint, arrogant smile touching his lips.
"The final scoreline of this match is the price Beşiktaş paid for their provocations. If there had been another five minutes on the clock, I am confident Aston Villa would have made it 6-1."
The post-match mockery completely shattered the fragile egos of the Beşiktaş fanbase.
After the press conference, a large mob of ultras surrounded the Aston Villa team bus in the stadium parking lot, hurling abuse and debris.
Fortunately, riot police arrived promptly and the rowdy fans were quickly "invited" inside the station for a "cup of tea."
That evening, the entire Aston Villa squad boarded a charter flight back to England without delay.
With the away victory secured, Aston Villa topped their Europa League group with six points from two matches.
Two weeks later, they would travel again to face their third group stage opponent—and arguably the weakest team—Slovan Bratislava.
...
The following morning, Dean Smith gave his players no rest. They faced a Premier League match in three days against Norwich City, another newly promoted side.
The physical toll of the Beşiktaş brawl was heavy.
Wesley had severely sprained his ankle from the center-back's tackle, and Grealish was nursing a deep nasty contusion from the red-card challenge.
Both players were ruled out.
Smith had no choice but to start Theodore again.
Without his captain and starting striker on the pitch, Theodore was needed more than ever to control the game.
...
October 5, 2019. 8:00 PM.
Carrow Road.
Aston Villa arrived in East Anglia for their crucial eighth Premier League match of the campaign.
From the opening whistle, Daniel Farke's Norwich showed absolutely no intention of going toe-to-toe with the high-flying visitors.
The Canaries adopted an unusually negative, defensive posture, retreating into a deep low block from the very first minute.
Yet even a parked bus couldn't completely contain Villa's relentless attack.
Though Wesley and Grealish were sidelined, Anwar El Ghazi stepped up to lead the line.
Standing at 189 cm tall, the Dutchman's physical profile closely resembled Wesley's, allowing Villa to maintain their tactical shape.
Most importantly, the midfield was still anchored by the teenager.
Villa could manage without Grealish, Wesley, or even Dean Smith on the touchline, but they absolutely could not function without Theodore Bjorn.
In the 11th minute, Theodore and Marvelous Nakamba combined to execute a brutal midfield trap, aggressively pressing and dispossessing Norwich's playmaker, Moritz Leitner.
The moment Leitner lost the ball, the Norwich defense descended into absolute panic.
Multiple yellow shirts instinctively swarmed around El Ghazi, anticipating an immediate, direct pass from Theodore.
But Theodore didn't pass.
Armed with his newly acquired Grealish Dribbling Card, Theodore dropped his shoulder and drove directly through the heart of the midfield.
The sudden burst caught Norwich completely off guard.
Defensive midfielder Kenny McLean rushed out of the block to confront him, desperately trying to shut down the lane.
Theodore was ready.
He threw a rapid series of step-over feints before suddenly bursting past McLean on the outside, leaving the Scotsman grasping at thin air.
"Brilliant footwork from the teenager!" Martin Tyler praised over the broadcast.
Having broken the midfield line, Theodore surged to the edge of the penalty area.
Norwich's two center-backs panicked and stepped out simultaneously to halt his advance.
They were too slow.
Theodore stop abruptly, shifted his weight, and swiftly scooped a delicate, arcing pass with his right foot!
The ball floated beautifully over the heads of the two center-backs, dropping perfectly into the penalty area.
Near the penalty spot, El Ghazi didn't even bother to take a touch.
He opened his body, twisted his hips, and unleashed a ferocious right-footed volley.
Thwack!!!
The ball rocketed into the bottom corner of the net!
1-0.
"El Ghazi strikes!" Tyler announced. "Aston Villa draw first blood at Carrow Road! And it's orchestrated once again by Theodore Bjorn!"
"The assist is pure class," Gary Neville added, "but look at the dribble to set it up. He completely dismantles the Norwich midfield with that run. He's adding new weapons to his game every week."
El Ghazi knew exactly who made the goal.
He wheeled away in celebration, sprinting straight to Theodore for a massive high-five.
@HolteEnder99: Theo's dribbling has suddenly become elite! Did he have an epiphany in Turkey? @EPL_Scout: Anyone else think his dribbling style looks exactly like Grealish's? That chop inside was pure Jack.
@Villan82: His absolute pace isn't terrifying, but his rhythm changes are so smooth. He's unplayable right now.
@CanariesHub: We are so bad at the back. This is going to be a long afternoon.
Conceding an early goal forced Daniel Farke to abandon his defensive blueprint.
Shortly after the restart, Norwich pushed forward, attempting to mount an attack.
Lacking central creativity without Leitner pulling the strings, the Canaries relied heavily on crosses from the flanks.
The ball found its way to Emiliano Buendía on the right wing.
The Argentine threw a series of sharp feints and whipped a cross into the box.
It was food for Tyrone Mings.
The massive Villa center-back easily leaped over his marker, powering a defensive header clear of the penalty area.
The loose ball dropped near the center circle, where Theodore once again reacted fastest, bringing it under control.
On the touchline, Daniel Farke frantically waved his arms, screaming at his players to swarm the teenager and cut off his passing lanes.
In an instant, McLean, Leitner, and striker Teemu Pukki converged on Theodore, forming a suffocating three-man press!