Aston Villa eventually saw off Luton Town in a 3-2 win on Saturday, with Lucas Digne’s late winner turning it in our favour after we had squandered a two-goal lead.
Ollie Watkins bagged a brace as Villa were dominant in the first half, but the hosts fought back after the break and drew level after 72 minutes.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Luton: Decisive ace superb in dramatic 3-2 win
While it looked as though we would be left to rue a missed opportunity and dropped points, Digne headed home the winning goal in the 89th minute as Villa moved five points clear of Tottenham in fourth place in the Premier League table, albeit Spurs have a game in hand.
Regardless of that though, we ultimately did our job this weekend by picking up a win, and it’s hoped that we can continue to build momentum and keep our winning form going in the coming weeks and months.
First-half Villa set the standard
Villa were excellent in the opening 45 minutes. We showed composure and sharpness in our build-up play to create openings and control the tempo of the game, while we produced quality and a clinical edge to our play to go 2-0 up.
That’s the standard and potential of this side in terms of the way we play, as it was never going to be easy going to Luton and taking the crowd out of the equation, but we managed to do it.
Different games will produce difference challenges, but if we can continue to improve and perfect our style, structure and mentality when trying to implement our way of playing, we’ll continue to pick up positive results.
Second-half Villa show room for improvement
In contrast, it was bitterly disappointing to watch how we unravelled in the second half, as not only were we undone by set pieces, but we simply broke down in terms of how we defended and built our play up by maintaining possession.
That showed there is the ongoing need for improvement and development in this side, as we’ve seen this before this season where we’ve gone ahead and allowed the opposition to come back into it and turn it around.
Watkins touched on it in his post-match interview and conceded that we perhaps relax too much when we’re comfortably ahead, but at this level, you simply can’t allow that to happen if we want to achieve our lofty objectives.
Ollie Watkins continues to produce
Speaking of the Villa forward, that’s now 26 goal involvements in the Premier League so far this season, more than any other player, while he’s now up to 16 goals in this campaign, his best return thus far in a single season.
Aside from the goals and threat in and around the box, his touch and hold-up play continues to be an important factor in our wins too, and so his all-round game has improved significantly since working with Emery.
The Villa boss was full of praise for the England international after our win, not only due to his decisive form on the pitch, but his approach, professionalism and mentality have all impressed the Spaniard too as he has firmly established himself as a fundamental figure in this Villa side.
“Fantastic, brilliant,” Emery said of Watkins, as per BirminghamLive. “He is an example for other players. Every day he works hard and tries to learn more. His mentality is to increase his level, practising and practising. His commitment to work and the tactical idea we are doing in every match is fantastic. Then, he is scoring and he is getting chances. He is scoring, defending set-pieces. He is as well being strong and available for 90 minutes keeping good fitness.
“Really, he is fantastic. He needs his teammates as well to help him and we have to try to get individually our performances through the team. It is difficult to find players with a better mentality than his. Then, his quality and skills are high. He wants to learn every day to increase his level playing.
“His first objective is to help the team scoring goals, but he understands as well tactically being clever how he can apply our tactical idea.
“I don’t know about outside here, but if we are now fourth in the table it is for everybody. But his impact as well helping us is high. He wants to progress and we wants to learn. This is the best mentality I want of the players.”
“He is being relevant here and his work is amazing. As a person he is humble. He avoids the ego and it doesn’t change him. As a person he is fantastic and as a professional.”
Emery gets it right with substitutions
The Villa boss was spot on with his changes in this one, and it started in the first half with the introduction of Morgan Rogers after Jacob Ramsey unfortunately picked up another injury.
Our January signing looked bright and slotted into the system and style of play really well, and so it will be a building block for him to try and cement his position in the side moving forward as the adaptation process isn’t easy and requires time on the pitch alongside his teammates to understand the demands being made of him.
Two more substitutes combined to seal our win as Moussa Diaby delivered the cross for Digne to head home, while it was a big call to then replace Rogers in the latter stages as Emery identified a way of putting us in a stronger position to get a winner, and we duly delivered.
Such is the respect that Emery commands, the 21-year-old will no doubt understand the decision as we looked shaky defensively on that side and he had already been booked, and ultimately the winning goal duly arrived not long after.
Big moment, big win and big week ahead
Ideally, we won’t have these high-scoring, back and forth games every week like we’ve seen in the last two outings. Emery will want to be more clinical, organised and disciplined to win more convincingly.
However, these are the type of moments that prove to be decisive in the bigger picture too, and so we may well be looking back to Digne’s header in May when we’re hunting down a Champions League qualification spot and picking it out as critical to the final standings.
It’s a vitally important win given results elsewhere too, and with the first leg of our round of 16 Europa Conference League tie against Ajax next up, followed by a crunch clash at home with Tottenham next weekend, Villa have got a huge week ahead and it was imperative that we went into it not only with a win, but with a confidence boost too.
