Aston Villa secured all three points on Sunday after seeing off Fulham in a 3-1 win, solidifying our position in fifth place in the Premier League table.
That’s now 13 consecutive home league wins as well as 21 league wins in a calendar year, which equals a club record, as Villa continue to impress and improve under the tutelage of Unai Emery.
READ MORE: What Unai Emery said in assessment of Villa’s 3-1 win over Fulham
Goals from John McGinn and Ollie Watkins in addition to an own goal secured the win this weekend, and although there will be frustration that we were unable to keep a clean sheet again, the most important outcome is the result and the impact that has on our standing in the table heading into the international break.
Home run continues at Fortress Villa Park
Villa were excellent in the first half, as we played with high intensity and urgency both on and off the ball to set the tone of the game and play to our strengths.
That in turn got the crowd into the game, and as we’ve seen for several months now, that turns Villa Park into a difficult place for opposing sides to come to and try and get a result.
Emery rightly continues to reiterate the need for our away form to improve, but the strength of our performances at home are certainly a foundation for a successful season and it’s impressive to see us pick teams apart so consistently and ruthlessly at Villa Park.
McGinn leads the way by setting standard
McGinn was excellent on Sunday, both in the way his tenacity, energy and determination set the standard defensively, and the quality he displayed in possession to give us an attacking threat too.
He capped that off with a brilliant goal to put us in a commanding position, and as is often the case, when he leads by example, others follow, and it invariably leads to Villa securing a positive result.
The Villa captain has now been involved in eight goals across 19 appearances in all competitions, with five goals and three assists, and that’s the joint-most from him in a season since we were promoted. Similarly to so many of his teammates, he is excelling under Emery.
Tielemans continues to show promise
After impressing in midweek against AZ Alkmaar, Youri Tielemans followed that performance up with another positive outing on Sunday, even in a usually unfavourable role for him.
The Belgian midfielder was working tirelessly off the ball to apply pressure further up the pitch and force Fulham into mistakes, while he paired that with technical quality in possession to help us build sustained pressure in that position on the left side.
Admittedly, his influence did fade in the second half, but there’s enough there to suggest that he’s starting to fit into our structure and find his rhythm as part of this team.
Emery’s elite mentality continues to drive success
While he expressed his delight with the result and our ongoing progression, Emery couldn’t help himself but to insist that although he’ll enjoy the start of the break, his mind is already thinking about our upcoming fixtures.
Villa were excellent in the first half, but there will be various aspects of our second-half display that the Spanish tactician won’t be happy with as we couldn’t maintain our control and allowed Fulham back into it.
That drive and ambition from Emery is exactly why our standards have been raised so high already after a year, and it will continue to demand more from all concerned to get even better.
Break a chance to reflect, regroup for next push
Having bounced back from our defeat at Nottingham Forest last weekend with wins over AZ and Fulham, it could be argued that the break comes at a bad time for us as it risks disrupting our momentum.
However, it’s a chance to reflect and regroup ahead of a crunch run of games that could shape the second half of our campaign both domestically and in Europe.
Villa head to Tottenham later this month before hosting Legia Warsaw at home, two games that could result in us sitting in the top four and qualified for the knockout stage of the Europa Conference League if all goes to plan. That’s soon followed by encounters with Man City and Arsenal, which could be a real indicator of just how far we’ve come thus far.
