Unai Emery’s Aston Villa ride was extended yesterday for another day, making it 14, to the old Dean Court. The team that surprises the Premier League consolidated its position in fourth place in the Champions League with 29 points —below Arsenal, 33; Liverpool, 31; and City, 30—after coming back from 1-0 down at Bournemouth and finishing 2-2 after another frenetic exchange of blows. The party had the new seal villain: overflowing enthusiasm, dizzying transitions, lateral crosses in abundance, a handful of shots tested in the laboratory, and a lack of control in the exits that was substantiated, to a large extent, in five clamorous occasions of the Bournemouth attack – two by Solanke, two from Semenyo and one from Luis Sinisterra—all destroyed by Emiliano Martínez, The Drawing
2
Neto, Milos Kerkez, Adam Smith, Marcos Senesi, Illia Zabarnyi, Antoine Semenyo (Luis Sinisterra, min. 70), Ryan Christie, Marcus Tavernier (Dango Ouattara, min. 93), Justin Kluivert (Philip Billing, min. 70), Lewis Cook and D. Solanke
2
Emiliano Martínez, Ezri Konsa Ngoyo (Matthew Cash, min. 74), Pau Torres, Digne (Álex Moreno, min. 74), Diego Carlos, Leon Bailey (Moussa Diaby, min. 74), Douglas Luiz, McGinn (Jhon Durán, min. 65), Tielemans, Ollie Watkins and Nicolo Zaniolo (Jacob Ramsey, min. 45)
Goals 1-0 min. 9: Antoine Semenyo. 1-1 min. 19: Leon Bailey. 2-1 min. 51: D. Solanke. 2-2 min. 90: Ollie Watkins.
Referee Thomas Bramall
Yellow cards Justin Kluivert (min. 12), Antoine Semenyo (min. 16), Pau Torres (min. 29), Nicolo Zaniolo (min. 43), Marcos Senesi (min. 49), Ryan Christie (min. 54) and Jhon Durán (min. 83)
It is impossible to understand this Villa without Emery in the same way that it is impossible to explain their fourth place in the Premier table without the goalkeeper of the Argentine team, a guy capable of stopping with his reflexes, with his imagination, with his hands, with his knees, with one foot, and also with charisma.
The Drawing It is the safety valve of a game plan that involves the risk of ceding possession to the rival and then defending the transitions with a central defender called Pau Torres. The Vila-real defender, a true master of moving the ball, is not the most seasoned marker. But he has an unrivaled ability to order the game with his long passes and his additions to the midfield. A value that Emery considers compensatory and crucial to give meaning to Villa’s attacks, adding an exit route if Douglas Luiz, Tielemans, or even Kamara, are covered.
An opening from Torres to Diaby, who was running on the left wing, led to one of those trademark lateral crosses: Ollie Watkins, the nine, in the 90th minute. The 2-2 added to the reputation of this Villa team as an unruly and counterpunching team, with fleeting maneuvers and economical executions. Emery’s team has 15 plays defined as counterattacks in this Premier, according to Opta, more than any of its 19 rivals.
The statistic makes Emery and his coaching staff proud, firmly established in a club that has built a bastion of power for them. He said it to TheAthletic Damià Vidagany, the director of football, Emery’s right arm at Villa, to describe the organization around the coach: “a strength”. A structure that, with the help of Monchi, the director of operations, aims to reproduce part of what Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain built so that Pep Guardiola enjoys freedom of maneuver at City. This is how Emery’s assistants, a determined student of the work, explain it from Aston Villa. guardiolian.
14 months after his arrival in Birmingham and at the age of 52, Emery is experiencing a long period of vindication. The Irún coach does not forget that November 29 marked four years since his dismissal from Arsenal, the most bitter point of his career. His assistants point out that his contempt for politics and social relations, added to his obsession with field work, isolated him to the point of making him vulnerable at Arsenal, where he assumed the heavy inheritance of Arsene Wenger. At Villa, where he enjoys an excellent relationship with owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, his position is completely different. The staff perceives it. Now his famous video sessions are long and silent, and his tactical and technical training, divided by positions, often exclusively dedicated to mechanizing specific actions based on the next opponent, are received with dedicated resignation by the boys.
“We stick out our chests”
“The mentality, the desire to win, everything about him has been absolutely brilliant,” said the captain, the Scottish John McGinn, after the 1-2 victory at Tottenham last week. “[Emery] He was obsessed with winning at Tottenham’s home. Absolutely obsessed. He put it into our heads. Before, when they overtook us on the scoreboard we would collapse. Now we stick out our chests. We are trained. It requires us to look at many details, think, and concentrate a lot.”
As at White Hart Lane, this Sunday Villa once again conceded the first goal of the afternoon. As then, the reaction was immediate. With Diaby on the bench – the club’s most expensive signing last summer, 55 million euros to Bayer – for more than an hour, Tielemans struggled to find Zaniolo’s deep clearances. Lacking harmony, the team clung to stoppages The Drawing and he caught a point that consolidates him as the revelation of the Premier.
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