How Unai Emery exacted sweet revenge on former employers Arsenal and took Aston Villa to a top-3 spot in Premier League

Whether the win over Arsenal gave him extra joy or not, it certainly marked another giant stride towards Emery’s Premier League retribution, besides emphasising that Villa are perhaps more than just outsiders. Once ridiculed for everything; from his English accent to red patches on the sleeve of his blazers to his tactics, mocked as a “Europa specialist”, nicknamed Traffic Warden for his sideline gestures; he is exacting sweet revenge on his critics.

This is football. 👌

Emery Ball in full flow! 😍 pic.twitter.com/Cy18WxMQFg

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 10, 2023

While the season is still young, and hence presumptuous to term Aston Villa title-pushers, unsure about whether they would wither in the pressure or weather the storm, Emery has transformed them from a team fighting for survival to one tussling for at least a top-four spot. When he inherited the club from Steven Gerrard last year, they were 16th, dithering without direction, a club that seemed as clueless as it was spiritless. But in six months, he not only helped them survive, but steered them to seventh spot last season, before lifting them to third after 16 games this edition.

Behind the rather dramatic revival — to contextualise his progress, he has won 32 of his first 51 games in charge of Aston Villa, whereas Pep Guardiola managed 30 and Jurgen Klopp 24 — is a constantly evolving manager’s nerdish obsession with the finer details of the game, a conversationalist and motivator who spends considerable time talking with the players, cajoling, convincing and eventually getting the best out of them.

Little wonder that most of the players have improved a few notches under him. Striker Ollie Watkins was instructed to run within the width of the penalty box and not drift too much into wide areas beyond the box. The move has unlocked the clinical poacher in him. In 23 games in all competitions this season, he has racked up 13 goals and eight assists. With video analysts in tow, Emery would show him detailed visuals of former strikers he has worked with, like Edinson Cavani at Paris Saint-Germain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at Arsenal and Carlos Bacca at Sevilla. Watkins would say: “He has changed my mindset. I’m being smart with my runs, Before I was running into the channels and into the corners, and doing a lot of work for the team. Now I’m staying within the width of the box and timing my runs,” he said a couple of weeks ago.

THIS TEAM. 😮‍💨

Highlights: Aston Villa 1-0 Arsenal! 👊 pic.twitter.com/V3vBCChxHR

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 10, 2023

Similarly, the experienced McGinn, an old-school box-to-box midfielder, was told to take more time on the ball. “He would tell me to have more touches. In Scotland, you’re told to clear it after two or three touches. Every day, I’m learning different things from him,” he would say.

Leon Bailey was granted the freedom to dribble and improvise, as he did with telling effect against Manchester City; the tenacious holding midfielder was told to unleash more shots on goal because he has the gift to score with long-rangers. Veteran goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez is being remoulded into a modern-day ball-playing goalkeeper.

“His way of doing things is different. He knows exactly what he wants. Day in and day out, he knows what he’s doing to help us get three points,” Bailey would say after the Manchester City game.

Having his way

Emery has changed the pre-game routines too. Before a game, they would all stay at a hotel near the stadium, they would dine on the same table after long squad meetings where he would first show various tactical videos and then motivational films. To unwind, he engages players in paddle tennis tournaments, besides bonding sessions during breaks and preseasons.

Two familiar faces have helped his Premier League redemption journey too — president of football operations Monchi, and Damian Vidagany, a close friend of Emery who juggles with a large spread of roles. He brought six other staff members, who he had known or worked with, thus building a close circle of trust, which he felt he clearly lacked in his time with Arsenal, where he admittedly felt he was an outsider.

Aston Villa’s head coach Unai Emery follows the game of the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Manchester City at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)

“Arsenal couldn’t protect me. Truth is, I felt alone,” he told The Guardian, months after he was sacked.

He talks about Arsenal with a sense of both warmth and regret. “It’s a club I had invested a lot in,” he once said. He had frame-worked Arsenal’s return path to glory with a reliance on youth. Some of the key figures of Arteta’s Arsenal — Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli — took baby steps under him. The ouster, he said, would come as a shock.

The snub shattered him, but he picked up the shards of broken self- belief and rebuilt his career, A reasonably successful time at Villarreal before he returned to the Premier League. Underpinning his success is his tactical flexibility. The impression that he tunes his teams to counter-attack — as was the case with his early Sevilla side — still sticks.

A special, special night. ✨

Highlights: Aston Villa 1-0 Man City. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/iSREiWpTMN

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 7, 2023

Rather, his is an amalgamation of different approaches, marked by incredible tactical flexibility. Against Manchester City, he packed his team with four classical central midfielders to man-mark City’s attackers. It’s a trend that is getting increasingly popular in Italian football, and helps wield midfield control as well as create overloads centrally. City were caught off-guard, and Villa pressed relentlessly higher up the pitch, winning possession in the final third 13 times, the most ever against a Guardiola team.

Against Arsenal, they did not always press as high. They are lightning quick in transitions, with McGinn and the two No. 10s Bailey and Moussa Diaby all slicing into spaces with both incision and precision. A robust backline protected by the tenacious double pivot of Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara has made them an impregnable defensive block, as Arsenal and City would vouch for.

Both Arteta and Guardiola, whose teams Emery beat in the space of four days, played up Villa’s title-challenging potential.

Beyond the theme of redemption and Villa pushing for the title, here is a manager enjoying what he does. It was not the case at Arsenal, where he said there was too much politics behind his back, where he was coaching with a group of strangers, where he had little freedom and most of all, where the giant shadow of Arsene Wenger loomed over him. At Villa, Emery is casting his own shadow.