Aston Villa have begun this season in the fantastic fashion that they ended the last. Wins for Unai Emery’s side have come so far with many believing there’s still a number of gears for them to reach, until they are at their best. Here’s the latest on the Villians as they continue to impress.
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00:00collectively picking up wins when they're not at their very best at the
00:03moment. They started the season extremely well but it is a bit of a
00:06different side from last season in terms of the fact they are really
00:11punishing sides. They're more tactically aware and they're just
00:14nicking the goals in the last final moments. Obviously John Duran's been
00:18fantastic. How have you sort of viewed Villa in the last few games and they can
00:23continue doing this? Obviously they are still getting three points
00:27despite not being quite their best. It's just so consistent under Unai Emery
00:31and his tactics and he never seems to stray away from his mentality and his
00:36structure. There was a little bit of a shift at the start of the season,
00:39maybe to the right hand side of the pitch instead of the left with the
00:42wingbacks. But Luca Dean now showing against Fulham just how important that
00:47width is on the left hand side. A bit of an overload and teams just can't
00:50seem to deal with it. You think it being a fairly one dimensional system
00:53that teams would be able to understand it and counteract it. But it's just so
00:57intelligent the way that Unai Emery operates with a diamond in midfield.
01:01You've got the power of Amadou Onana. You've got the creativity of Yuri
01:04Thielemans. Someone like John McGinn coming back in soon. He works so hard
01:09every single game. He works his socks off. Morgan Rodgers, who on the half
01:12turn can create so many issues, dribbling at defenders, taking shots
01:15from range. His goal at the weekend, his second of the season, took a big
01:18deflection but he still deserved it because of all the positions he was
01:21getting in. Oli Watkins showing just how world class he is as well with his
01:25header. It was Yuri Thielemans' corner as well. The perfect delivery. It's
01:29just that quality. If they keep peppering at teams, they can keep
01:32going. But by no means were they at their best at Craven Cottage. I mean,
01:36the first goal they conceded was, well, the only goal they conceded rather,
01:40but the opener was terrible defensively. One long ball over the top from
01:43Bern Leno. Pau Torres, who we've been talking about as one of the best
01:47defenders in the league, showed no kind of challenge whatsoever to Raul
01:50Jimenez, who opened the scoring. I think Emery will be disappointed with
01:55those aspects of Villa's game, but once you continue for 90 minutes
01:59consistently, that's when the results can come through.
02:02I mean, looking at their Champions League fixtures, they are clearly some
02:05winnable games in there. You know, it real counts towards having a fully
02:10fit squad. First time in 18 months they're going to be having that fully
02:13fit squad and obviously the EFL Cup fixtures kicking as well. You know,
02:18this Villa hero is fantastic, but they do want to come away with a bit
02:21of silverware to show for it.
02:24Yeah, I think the Champions League is going to be a bit of a challenging
02:27bit of silverware, but potentially competing in the Carabao Cup or the
02:31FA Cup could provide some positivity. But I think the more important thing
02:35is maybe not silverware directly this year, but just continuing the
02:38progression and establishing themselves as a top four Premier League team.
02:42And that's going to be tougher than ever. We've seen that Chelsea have
02:44been seeing a bit of a resurgence, Tottenham are bound to improve,
02:48Newcastle, Brighton are in the mix, Man United might improve as well.
02:52So it's so, so competitive, so long to go. And as you said, the squad
02:56depth and rotation, I think is going to be incredibly important to that.