After the away win over Tottenham last weekend, Aston Villa have climbed to the Top 4 with 28 points after 13 matches, they are only 2 points behind leaders Manchester City. More broadly, from the beginning of 2023 to now, the Villa Park team is the club with the second most points in the Premier League (71), behind only Arsenal (71, higher than the goal difference) and Manchester City (82).
This season, the Villians only have to play in the Europa Conference League as a continental tournament, so the difficulty is not too big. They will have more time and physical strength to focus on the Premier League front with the hope of winning a ticket to the 2024-2025 Champions League.
Before entering the match against AZ Alkmaar in early November, Unai Emery and his coaching staff had prepared personnel and playing style for the away trip to Tottenham (22-day trip). Normally, Aston Villa have a habit of preparing only 1 match in advance, but this time it is 2 (between these two matches, Villa won 3-1 against Fulham in the Premier League).
Emery is cautious and not dreamy. In many interviews, the Spanish coach only said he wanted Villa to finish the season in the Top 7. Even when he beat Chelsea and Tottenham, Emery kept his position. The reason is that when looking back at the losses to Newcastle and Liverpool, the 52-year-old strategist realized that his team still had many shortcomings.
The 1-5 defeat to Newcastle on the opening day of the season left too many lessons and warnings. In September, Aston Villa lost 0-3 at Anfield due to silly tactical system errors. Emery is not a person who likes to interrupt and explain. He did not say much about the reasons for those losses and only focused on the plan for the next matches.
"It's simply that they're better than us. When Aston Villa lost those two matches, I just reminded the players that they need to improve their playing style, especially away from home" - Emery shared.
Since the FIFA Days series in September, Aston Villa have won more (6 matches) and accumulated more points9) than any other club. For teams that are considered weaker (based on the rankings), Aston Villa have not stumbled even once.
In the away match against Tottenham, despite being behind, Villa did not panic, even when the opponent kept putting the ball into the net (later refused for offside). With just a few counter-attacks that were not too special, Emery's stars brought victory. Rough and thorny, that is the pressure Emery is putting on the players to improve away from home, not just to sublimate at home at Villa Park.
On the coaching bench, after the final whistle at Tottenham Stadium, the Aston Villa coaching staff applauded proudly. Their calculations of tactics, playing style and performance have been almost fully met.
With a unique goalkeeper Emi Martinez, he turned to the small number of home fans in the stands to celebrate emotionally. Martinez once said that the 2022 world champion did not come here to waste time and in the end, the team completed the task excellently.
