Villa beat Burnley, as Dave Woodhall expected.
Into the fourth Unai Emery season and Villa are still learning. The team are coping with playing two matches a week and supporters are having to do the same. Game management, squad rotation, doing enough to win without trying too hard. We’ve watched the successful teams doing it for long enough and now it’s our turn.
Last Thursday saw a routine win in Europe and three days later we were up against Premier League strugglers Burnley. There’s a time for turning on the style and a time for pragmatism. Sunday afternoon was definitely a case of getting three points with minimum fuss.
The line-up is beginning to take on a more settled look and Lamare Bogarde started again, showing that Emery is regarding him as a first teamer. There were plenty of early 
opportunities, with Ollie Watkins and Ezri Konsa having chances and Donyell Malen also looking sharp while Morgan Rogers’ goalbound shot was deflected.
Still, no worries, The opening goal was bound to come soon and midway through the first half Boubabar Kamara’s through ball found Malen, who despite being forced out wide was still able to pick his shot perfectly.
The rest of the half was more subdued and her beginning of the second little more eventful. The boss seemed about to make a substitution when Rogers, who had shot over the bar not long earlier, laid on Malen’s second. With Villa well on top more goals could have come but they decided to sit back and settle for what they’d got.
This could have proved the wrong idea, particularly after Unai took off Watkins and John McGinn. Neither man looked especially tired and both had been doing well but no doubt the manager would argue that there’s still a lot of the season to go.
Whatever the reason, a bit of the urgency was lost and with twelve minutes to go Burnley pulled one back from a corner. That was one of their few attacks and they showed even less afterwards as Villa held out comfortably.
Emiliano Buendia, who had replaced Watkins, was again a constant threat until in stoppage time he caught an elbow to the face and after a lengthy delay was forced off. The assailant got barely a talking-to, which highlights the inconsistencies of refereeing.
Buendia’s replacement, Ian Maasten, might have been the latest substitute in history, coming on in the eleventh minute of stoppage time and he didn’t have much to do as Villa duly took what had looked on paper to be a straightforward three points.
We went into the first international break of the season looking like a team destined to struggle. We’re going into the next one on the back of a seven match unbeaten run. The injuries are starting to clear up (which is the biggest tempting of fate imaginable), the players are looking more confident and prospects for the rest of the season seem brighter than anyone would have imagined during the previous blank weekend. No doubt Dubai is anticipating some serious spending.
