Aston Villa’s magnificent start to the season continued with a win over Arsenal on Saturday, and it’s fascinating to hear what the mentality and mood is like within the squad.
From a fan perspective, we can enjoy every minute of this run we’re on having made it 15 consecutive home league wins this weekend, while we can also dare to dream about where this season might take us.
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For the coaching staff and players though, they have to find a balance between ambition and staying in the moment, and two of our most influential figures have been speaking about that aspect of it after we made it back-to-back wins over Manchester City and Arsenal this week.
Fresh from scoring the winner against the latter, McGinn was more pragmatic in that he emphasised the need to stay humble and take it one game at a time to see where it leads to, and the Villa captain also joked that he’s got his eye on a couple of members of the squad who are perhaps buying into the excitement a little too much.
“It was an absolutely monumental effort,” McGinn told VillaTV. “It wasn’t pretty at times but they’re a great side. What a week.
“A big shout to all the boys who came on, it’s not easy coming into a game like that. Arsenal have scored a lot of late goals this season, so we had to be switched on and really concentrate. These teams are used to being up and around there and we’re not. We need to try and manage the games as best we can going into a really busy spell.
“Absolutely pleasantly surprised with how calm and humble we’ve been. Very easy to get carried away. I’ve got my eye on a few that could potentially get carried away, but the celebrations are reasonably muted. We’re very, very proud of where we are. We just need to keep plugging away, we’re completely alien to this, and we’ve just got to take each game as it comes and see where we go.”
One of the fundamental strengths of this group though is that we do have a coach who is used to competing for major honours and at an elite level given the roles and experiences he’s had in the past.
In Emiliano Martinez, we have a player who has enjoyed recent success in winning the biggest trophy there is in the World Cup, while there are countless other individuals who have played at a high level in Europe previously and are experienced internationals.
Those are all factors that should help us deal with the pressure and expectation that is growing now, and that in turn will help those who are indeed very much alien to the experience.
Martinez though is buying in. The Argentine international has never been shy about expressing his ambition and objectives before, and so with the way we’ve started the season, he rightly isn’t putting a limit on what we can achieve this year if we can continue to perform like we have done since Emery was appointed.
“When you beat Man City & Arsenal in a week, one game controlling them like I’ve never seen Man City being controlled, then suffering vs Arsenal for 85 mins and managing to win again…I’m a believer mate,” a smiling Martinez told BBC Sport, as per the video below.
Wait for it… 😄#BBCFootball #avfc #MOTD pic.twitter.com/BDi4p6Fxk0
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) December 9, 2023