Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was delighted after we secured a 5-0 win over Sheffield Utd to return to form with a comprehensive victory.
Goals from John McGinn, Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey and Youri Tielemans put us 4-0 up after the opening 30 minutes, as we produced a ruthless and clinical start to the game.
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Alex Moreno added a fifth after the break, while Emery was then able to make changes and rest key players as we face a big week ahead with clashes against Chelsea and Man Utd in the FA Cup and Premier League respectively to come.
In turn, it was a successful outing for many reasons, and especially having won just one of our last five league outings, losing in bitterly disappointing fashion to Newcastle Utd in midweek, it was fundamental that we produced a reaction this weekend and got back to winning ways.
Unsurprisingly, Emery was delighted with the performance and result, particularly with the way we went on to control the game with our intensity, urgency and quality in the final third.
“I’m happy because before the match we were very focused to react. We scored goals, created chances and stopped them. Winning away is difficult,” he said after the game, as per BBC Sport. “It was better than we were thinking at the beginning. We were clinical. We conceded two good chances at the end of the match.
“Emiliano always wants to keep clean sheets, like a striker [with goals].
“They were playing at home and started very well, they created the first chances. We stopped them. We were breaking their pressure and creating spaces.
“We have to try to focus each match. We’re really happy. Our aggression was fantastic.
“We reacted very well after Tuesday. We were focused. We controlled the game. The last 10 minutes we conceded one goal, overturned by VAR, and two chances. We want to win. The result at the end, scoring goals is important but the most important thing is to play safe.”
He later added to VillaTV: “I’m very happy because we reacted very well after our defeat at home on Tuesday at Villa Park. Even when we lost that match we were speaking afterwards about how the way we did at home was fantastic. We lost and it was coming.
“It was very important not to lose the focus, don’t lose our objective and try to be consistent in our way; try to react quickly. Not everything we did was bad against Newcastle, but we had to keep being consistent like we were.
“We had to work, analyse the opponent and impose our game plan, trying to be together. Everybody was focused and ready to play. Today our reaction was fantastic and the result was fantastic.
“The players need positive words sometimes. Sometimes they are getting frustrated, individually or collectively, when we are losing or not being successful. We have to protect and support everybody and try to be together in the good moments and bad moments.
“We reacted very well today and we’ll keep balance. We won and we have three points but now we will analyse and try to recover quickly. On Wednesday we are playing at home against Chelsea in the FA Cup and we will focus on this match. We will prepare the best possible way and try to be in good balance.”
After our recent dip in form and performance level, this feels like it could be a significant turning point, but ultimately it’s crucial we follow it up in the next two games and start to rediscover our best football on a consistent basis.
Villa have lacked ideas and quality in the final third in particular over the last month, and that has been a major factor in why our form has slipped. Fortunately, key players looked like they were playing with confidence again in this one, and we’ll hopefully see them get back to their top level in the coming weeks.
While moving back into the top four is a significant aspect of the result in itself, we’re now 10 points ahead of West Ham Utd at the time of writing, with a top five finish potentially enough to qualify for the Champions League.
We needed this result to give our pursuit of that objective a jolt, and we’ll hopefully now build momentum going into our FA Cup replay against Chelsea, before we host Man Utd in the league next Sunday.