Well, it looks like the dormant English Giant is wide awake today. There is no doubt now that Aston Villa are true, legit, and DANGEROUS title challengers as they completely DEMOLISHED Manchester City to move into 3rd place!
The wheels of change are really turning in the Premier League!
In what has to be the most shocking and incredible performance in the Premier League this season, Aston Villa completely and wholeheartedly annihilated Manchester City to not only move above the 3X reigning champions into 3rd place, but they’ve now seriously established themselves as definitive title challengers. And, to be honest, I think this is great for the Premier League!
Alright, I don’t know how many of you guys watched the Manchester City vs. Aston Villa game, but if you didn’t, you REALLY MISSED OUT on watching City getting the drubbing of a lifetime. I’m not exaggerating even in the slightest when I say that Manchester City, the 3X defending Premier League champions, defending FA Cup champions, and the defending Champions League winners, got obliterated and humiliated to the point it looked like Villa was playing against a Championship side.
Sure, Villa only scored 1 goal and beat City 1-0 through Leon Bailey’s late 76th-minute deflected strike, but Villa destroyed City in just about every meaningful statistical category you could think of. Aside from the possession (56% vs. 44% for City) and passing stats (520 passes vs. 436 passes for City), which still were very close by comparison to most City games in Villa’s favor, Aston Villa (22) had 11X as many shots as Man City (2), over three times as many shots on target (7 vs. 2), 6X as many corners (6 vs. 0), and had an expected goal stat of 4.00 to City’s…0.
Yes, if this game went as the expected goals stats said it should have, Man City should have been trounced 4-0 by Villa. That’s how insane this game was.
This really was one of Pep Guardiola’s most embarrassing and thorough defeats as a manager in not only his time with Man City, but also throughout his entire career. Sure, City REALLY missed Rodri’s evermore clear steady and composed hand in the center of the park (City have played 4 games without Rodri this year…and have lost all four), but City should never get beaten like this. Ever!
And I guess that’s just a testament to how great Aston Villa under Unai Emery are nowadays. Despite only having a few players who one could call “star-caliber” (ex: Emi Martinez and Douglas Luiz), this Villa side just works relentless and efficiently well with one another and under Emery’s steady hand.
Essentially, Aston Villa are playing like Emery’s Villareal side as they’re beating far more “talented” and wealthy sides in the standings (Villa are now in 3rd place behind on Liverpool and Arsenal), while also being able to go on deep European runs (Villa are in 1st place in their Conference League group). I’ve seen some people say online that “Emery is doing so well and the top clubs should try to sign him up again”, and while I agree with the sentiment, I think that would be a disaster for all parties involved.
First, Villa ARE a top club as they have both the invested owners who want to make this team into a perennial Premier League winner, but they also have the long-storied history of winning past league titles (5 wins, 7 runners-up finishes) and are one of only six English sides to have won the Champions League (they won in 1982). It’s only been in the last 20 years Villa have fallen from grace…but it doesn’t seem like it will stay that way for long.
And, as for Emery, this is what he does. He takes teams with smaller expectations and budgets and turns them into title challengers, European challengers, and cup winners. I think this is the level that best suits Emery and if he was to go back to a team with far less patience and more emphasis on immediate success, he will fail as he did with Arsenal.
So, at the end of the day, I think Aston Villa are back for as long as Emery is in charge of this team and the owners are invested in making this side a winner again. And Man City just found that out the hard way.
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