With Aston Villa’s Head Coach, Unai Emery having just completed a full seasons worth of games (albeit across two seasons), it seems a good idea to review exactly where the Villans are following Steven Gerrards disastrous reign.
Villa appointed the Spanish coach to steady what was becoming an increasingly stormy ship, with Gerrard having ‘dropped’ star names such as John McGinn, Ollie Watkins and Tyrone Mings, who found themselves on the subs-bench – results were poor and an incredibly concerning night at Fulham saw the end of the short Gerrard era – Enter Mr Emery!
Viewed across Europe as an ‘elite-coach’, opinion in the Premier League was less positive with Emery having been sacked by Arsenal in 2019 – the football world watched and wondered.
Football is notoriously fickle with ‘hyperbole’ constantly oozing, but it is not an exaggeration to suggest that never before in Premier League history has a manager made such a difference in such a short time. Emery has taken a massively underperforming squad and created a side which even the Premier leagues’ best are fearing. Almost overnight, Aston Villa have become genuine contenders for Champions League qualification and, some believe, Premier League winners!
At the time of writing this, Emery had taken the club from 17th place into 3rd and achieved a club record 15 consecutive home victories – all this with pretty much Steven Gerrards squad! The Spanish coach has added a small number to his squad but essentially, he has turned Gerrards squad into a first class outfit who are challenging the very best.
Recent victories against Manchester City and Arsenal have simply confirmed what Villa supporters have known for some time – Emery is an elite coach who is guiding the club back to where they belong.
The complete dismantling of treble winners Man City recently, something we had not seen before under Pep Guardiola, underlined just how far Villa had progressed – they simply destroyed the best side in the world and followed this up three days later with another victory against league leaders Arsenal. Encouragingly, this was a very different encounter with a win ‘ground-out’, showing that Emery can guide his team to wins in very different ways.
It’s fair to confirm that the jury is no longer out – Villa have an elite coach in Emery – one of Europe’s best – long may it continue!
Image Credits: CarlosRM & Arne Müseler via commons.wikimedia.org & Blue Gilet via Pixabay.com
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