Aston Villa secured a 5-0 win at Hibernian in the first leg of our Europa Conference League play-off round tie on Wednesday night, after a brilliant performance at Easter Road.
With a difficult atmosphere to contend with as well as the intensity and tempo with which the hosts looked to play in the early stages, it was expected to be a difficult challenge for Villa on our return to Europe.
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However, we ultimately made it look straight-forward without having to go through the gears as we now take a commanding lead into the second leg at home next Thursday night.
After all the talk following our seventh-place finish last season, it was crucial that we didn’t let this chance to play European football slip away, and the players certainly didn’t allow that to happen in what had the potential to be a tricky encounter.
Emery takes no chance with team selection
While there might have been a temptation for Unai Emery to rotate and rest players with Burnley away on Sunday, the Villa boss didn’t take any chances and named a strong XI for the encounter.
That again reiterated his intent in relation to the Europa Conference League, and although we might now see rotation in the second leg and perhaps in the group stage if we advance, he adopted the perfect approach with his decision-making for this game.
On the road against Scottish opposition in our first European outing in years, it needed strong characters and key individuals on the pitch, and Emery got the starting XI spot on.
Villa produce professional, clinical performance
Building on the point above, the players then responded with a professional display as they were disciplined, focused and clinical in putting Hibernian to the sword.
While Emery wouldn’t have allowed for complacency or for standards to drop, there could have been a risk of taking the challenge lightly or easing off as we continued to dominate.
However, from the first minute to the last, Villa were ruthless in the way in which we took our goals and stood up to rare periods of pressure well to secure a big win.
Watkins bounces back in style
Ollie Watkins would have been disappointed not to get in on the scoring against Everton on Sunday, and so it was important for him to bounce back here with a strong performance.
The 27-year-old didn’t disappoint as he helped himself to a hat-trick, becoming just the fourth Villa player to achieve the feat in Europe.
From his instincts and movement in the box for his first two headers, to the run and finish for his third, it was a clinical display from the Villa forward and he’ll hopefully go on a run off the back of this having now kick-started his personal campaign.
Digne continues to impress amid speculation
Speculation over his future remains rife, and so it must be a distraction to some degree for Lucas Digne as he continues to play a key role in Alex Moreno’s absence.
Time will tell if he stays or goes, but he has shown his quality over the last two games with back-to-back top performances against Everton and Hibernian.
While he has been afforded plenty of time and space down the left flank in both outings and still isn’t necessarily a perfect fit for Emery’s system and preferred style of play, the quality of his delivery has been impressive as he recorded three assists on Wednesday in a really positive shift.
Carlos ticks an important box
Having played his first full 90 minutes for the first time in over a year, the Brazilian will have been delighted coming off the pitch at full-time, and more so given the impressive nature of his performance.
Physically imposing, tactically disciplined as part of the collective defensive effort and composed in possession, he ticked a lot of important boxes in our win.
Of course, he’ll face sterner tests moving forward, but this was an important step in itself for him to not only reach peak match condition and sharpness again, but perhaps prove to himself after such a lengthy and horrible injury setback that he can get back to his previous levels.
