Amid all the drama and thrills of Aston Villa’s 3-2 win over Everton, Youri Tielemans continued to operate at a class above in our midfield this weekend.
Questions were asked this past summer, mainly from outside the club’s fanbase, as to how we’d cope with the loss of Douglas Luiz, and some ill-informed opinions appeared to suggest that we’d signed Amadou Onana to fill that particular void.
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While that was simply never the case, the decision to sell Luiz was likely also partly made with the intention and belief in making Tielemans the heartbeat and orchestrator in chief of this side, and the Belgian international is flourishing with that new level of responsibility and importance.
Lining up alongside his compatriot Onana in our deeper midfield pivot, Tielemans has the freedom and license to dictate tempo and possession in our own half, but he effortlessly combines that quality with his vision and passing range to break the lines and set the likes of Morgan Rogers and Jacob Ramsey off in attack at pace.
Conversely, he also has the technical ability to go long and over the top if he spots the right pass, and we saw that prove to be effective in the lead up to our equaliser as his ball forced an error, which Ollie Watkins duly punished.
Tielemans has the ability to make us tick, as when he stays composed and patient to probe and create openings, we seem to perform at the same level across the pitch and methodically break teams down with our structure and movement.
Coupled with his leadership and presence in the squad off the pitch with his experience and winning mentality, he is rapidly building on his influence last season and taking both his and our game to the next level with his impact in midfield on a consistent basis.
That’s all without even mentioning his tenacity and physical approach to be an important defensive shield in central areas in front of our backline too.
Time will tell if he can maintain this level, particularly as opposing sides try to limit his influence and have a more targeted approach to shutting him down.
However, it’s not exactly been a secret through our opening four games of the campaign, and yet Tielemans has the class to find pockets of space and impose himself on games regardless of what the opposition have prepared.
It’s been fascinating and a real joy to watch him operate thus far, and as his partnership with Onana continues to develop, there is also the intrigue over what a Tielemans-Boubacar Kamara pairing will look like when the latter returns from injury.
Further, we saw Unai Emery opt to field Ross Barkley alongside him in the second half on Saturday evening, and in games where Villa dominate possession, that midfield pairing will be so effective in helping us dictate and build sustained pressure by controlling proceedings from deeper areas.
It allows us to build our play patiently and systematically, and so regardless of his midfield partner, Tielemans will likely be a fixture of Emery’s Villa this season, as he continues to play the best football we’ve seen from him since he arrived on a free transfer last year. What a coup that piece of business continues to look.
