Aston Villa secured an impressive 3-1 win over Burnley on Sunday as we continued our strong response following that heavy opening weekend defeat.
Goals from Matty Cash and Moussa Diaby sealed the three points at Turf Moor, as we made it three consecutive wins across all competitions while scoring 12 goals and conceding just one.
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This was expected to be a really tricky contest with Burnley at home and looking to get their first points on the board, and although they put us under pressure at the start of the second half, Villa did well for the most part to limit their threat and control proceedings.
In turn, this will be another confidence boost ahead of facing Hibernian on Thursday night in the second leg of our Europa Conference League play-off round tie, before another difficult assignment on the road against Liverpool on Sunday.
Cash relishes more advanced role this time
Emery deployed the Polish international in an advanced role on the right of our midfield last season against Wolves in a tweak that ultimately didn’t work that night.
However, as with many tactical solutions and improvements that the Villa boss has made since he arrived, he has clearly worked hard with Cash on being more effective in that position and now has an important alternative option at his disposal moving forward.
The Villa man was excellent on Sunday as he got into dangerous positions and bagged his brace with two good finishes. Further, his link-up play with Diaby was impressive throughout and so he’ll hope to build on that now if he is asked to play there again this week.
Diaby a crucial addition to Villa attack
The Frenchman not only took his goal brilliantly, but he produced a decisive moment at a crucial stage in the game with Burnley getting on top and applying pressure.
It changed the complexion of the encounter entirely, and so in addition to being a dynamic presence in the final third with his movement and threat as he provided the assist for Cash’s second too, he is a clear difference maker already.
The speed with which he has settled and integrated into the system and style of play has been impressive, and it’s hoped that there is still much, much more to come from him.
Digne continues impressive form amid transfer talk
That’s now four assists in his last two games as Lucas Digne has swept speculation over his future aside and focused on improving his performances.
It’s an important boost not only seeing him get into key areas down our left flank, but also adding a consistent and decisive end product to our attacking play.
As we’ve seen with Alex Moreno, Emery wants his left-back to push forward and provide good deliveries into the box, predominantly cut backs from advanced positions. Digne did exactly that in this one, and it’s looking a lot more promising from him.
McGinn leads stellar midfield performance
Both Boubacar Kamara and Douglas Luiz deserve plenty of credit for their ability to break Burnley’s rhythm and dictate tempo and possession for us, but John McGinn’s performance stood out too.
The Villa captain kept finding pockets of space in midfield and the final third and played key passes to set us off on dangerous attacks, some of which ultimately led to our goals.
Given there were doubts raised over his ability to play on the left of our midfield and how that impacted our balance in that area of the pitch after the first game, it’s been some turnaround to prove he can deliver in yet another role.
Carlos providing timely solution
Losing Tyrone Mings for most, if not all, of this season was a terrible blow, and that increased the responsibility on the shoulders of Pau Torres, Ezri Konsa and Diego Carlos to fill that void.
With Emery liking the option of deploying Konsa at right-back, it has led to a more prominent role for Carlos, who has now had back-to-back starts and played a full 90 minutes in both outings in two games over five days.
Not only that, but the Brazilian centre-half is looking physically imposing, quick in his recovery to get across and nullify a threat and is becoming sharper with his defensive work. He still needs a little work on the accuracy of his distribution, but it’s a vital boost for us to have him back playing at a high level after his long-term injury setback.
Zaniolo impresses on debut
While it may have only been a brief 17-minute outing, Nicolo Zaniolo showed some encouraging signs in his Villa debut.
The 24-year-old looked an immediate threat to the right of Ollie Watkins, as he showed good intent, directness and powerful running to create a couple of openings for himself in a confident cameo appearance.
He looks motivated, happy and a quick learner in terms of settling into the system under Emery, and it’s hopefully going to be not only an effective signing for us, but also a lot of fun tracking his progress this season.