After Aston Villa’s brilliant win over Man City, it’s naturally difficult to pick out specific individuals for praise given there were impactful performances across the pitch.
The plaudits deserve to be shared across the entire team as well as by Unai Emery, as everyone played their part in securing the 1-0 win over Pep Guardiola’s side to extend our incredible home form.
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From Emiliano Martinez’s early saves to Leon Bailey’s game-winning goal and the solidity and technical class from Diego Carlos and Pau Torres, there were key moments at both ends of the pitch and they proved to be decisive to the outcome.
In the heart of all that though were two players who set the tone throughout, with both John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara rightfully being picked out for praise by many after Wednesday night’s win at Villa Park.
Again, Youri Tielemans deserves recognition for his role in the result, as does Douglas Luiz and others, and so we can go through the entire starting XI and praise every individual.
That said, both McGinn and Kamara were exceptional in their respective roles in midweek, as they were fundamental in ensuring we maintained control and dictated proceedings in both phases for much of the encounter.
Kamara, who returned from suspension having been missed at Bournemouth, had a 100 percent tackle success rate, 89 percent passing accuracy, 69 touches, three chances created and three interceptions.
As seen in the highlights video below, McGinn was absolutely everywhere, but in addition to that energy and tenacity, he showed real quality in possession, to twist and turn away from pressure and create threatening openings for us consistently.
Invariably, when McGinn plays well and imposes himself on a game, Villa follow suit and are a physical side that gives the opposition real problems.
Along with Luiz, that is the beauty of this Villa midfield now. Not only do we have the personnel to get stuck in and do the dirty work for the team, but they have the ability to pair that with showing class and quality to drive us forward and add a dangerous dynamic to our attacking play.
It’s that balance, poise and control as a collective unit that makes us tick, and Emery will know better than anyone just how effective our midfield can be, and how fundamental it is to how he wants us to play.
When you add the composure and accuracy of Torres and Carlos in defence, that is critical to our desire to play out from the back, with both Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa certainly playing their part in that phase too.
However, Villa are finally winning midfield battles consistently against the top sides, and while we still have work to do when we lose one of those individuals or they’re having an off day, as we saw at Bournemouth and previously at Nottingham Forest, there is no doubting just how pivotal our midfield is to implementing the style of football Emery wants, which invariably leads to successful results.
How good was the captain last night? 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/NqA9OeR1uR
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 7, 2023
Praise for Dougie’s strong performance while avoiding a yellow card suspension for the Arsenal game and when I hear talk of “stuck in “, I cringe and vomit up memories of Vinnie Jones and Billy Bremmer.
UTV