Unai Emery faces old club Arsenal having turned Aston Villa into unlikely title contenders
How interesting to bring up the fifty years. The 50th game that Unai Emery has managed Aston Villa—the team he took over less than 14 months ago when they were 17th in the Premier League—is considered his best due to the calibre of the opposition.
Manchester City, who lost 1-0, may not be playing at their best right now, but out of all of their recent losses—four games without a victory—this one gave them the fewest excuses.
The energetic Villa team, whose manager was complimented by his City counterpart Pep Guardiola, who listed the attributes of the league’s quickest climbers, has leapfrogged the English and European champions in the standings.
“Unai Emery’s organisation, their physicality, tempo, and speed; the goalkeeper, their outstanding back four defenders, their bench, and their high pressing.” They are up there for that purpose. When a team outperforms us, we have to concede that fact.
Guardiola stated that all of this puts Villa in the running for a trophy that City has won five times in the previous six years.
Emery will set that notion aside, at least for a day or two, knowing full well that questions about an implausible run at winning the Premier League will be raised even more if his 51st game as Villa’s great transformer results in a fourth straight victory.
Saturday’s matchup between Arsenal and Villa Park, the league leaders, is significant for Emery.
If defeating Guardiola was a boost to his ego—in 14 encounters, Emery had never prevailed in that managerial match—then defeating his former employer would be even more significant.
After Emery’s 18-month tenure at Arsenal ended after seven games without a victory, the club fired him just over four years ago.
Guardiola’s assistant at the time, Mikel Arteta, was the first to be named as his replacement.
Even though Emery thought the firing was harsh, he still had the decency to talk to Arteta—who is from the same region of Spain—about the position the younger man was taking on and to offer advise and direction.
Some of it, certainly the parts about Arsenal’s potential, was wise. Since the beginning of last season, Arteta’s Arsenal have led the Premier League table for longer than any other club, reeled in by City only in the last month of 2022-23.
But there were some uncertain times in the first two years of Arteta’s tenure. In terms of rapid impact, Arteta can only look at Emery at Villa with envy. Arteta’s 148 Premier League matches in charge of Arsenal have yielded an average of 1.91 points. Emery’s 40 league games since replacing Steven Gerrard at Villa trump that: 2.03 points.
There have been seasons in which that sort of form would have been enough to win the league, but not so much in recent memory. When Arteta told his players that to still be top of the table in May the target must be set at a minimum of 96 points, he was pitching high, but within the kind of ball park that City have normalised during their period of supremacy.
Yet this season has an unusual feel, hinting at the possibility an outsider could disrupt the traditional hierarchy.
In the last two weeks, the Premier League has turned wild: Not only that City are on their leanest sequence since Guardiola began to shape them into the most well-ordered team in Europe, but that everyone in the upper reaches of the table is liable to sudden ambush.
Arsenal Thought…
Arsenal only escaped dropping points at lowly Luton Town on Tuesday thanks to a stoppage time
winner from Declan Rice, the seventh goal of the evening. Second-placed Liverpool had two days earlier scraped a 4-3 win having trailed Fulham at Anfield until the 87th minute.
Villa are not immune to these sorts of slip-up. Last weekend, they twice had to come from behind to take a point from Bournemouth – 15th in the table but rising – and last month lost at Nottingham Forest – 16th and falling – but what emboldens them is a terrific confidence at home.
It is explicit in the high line they dare to operate across a defence arranged well ahead of the ebulliently
daring Emi Martinez in goal, in the proactive drive of John McGinn in midfield and, against
City, in the focus of Leon Bailey, whose deflected shot gave Villa their three points.
It is audible in the din of an evocative arena where fans saw Championship football for the third time in a row five years ago. The perfect 21 points Villa has earned from their home games thus far clearly illustrates this.
Even though Arsenal has the greatest away record in the Premier League this year, they will have to contend with the toughest opponent to keep that record going.
If Arteta loses there, Emery will be right behind him, with Villa and Arsenal’s difference now just one point.
Aspiring champions? Emery maintains, “There are seven teams that are better contenders than us.” The truth is, he’s staring at five of them as he looks down the table.
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