Villa beat Viking Stavanger in the Champions League while Dave Woodhall is drawing parallels.
I often wonder how Ron Saunders and Unai Emery would have got on had their paths ever crossed. Villa’s current boss would doubtless have been impressed at how a team can be put together to conquer Europe and make a profit on transfers; the greatest Villa manager of all time so far would have envied the almost-total control the Spaniard has at the club. I do, though, doubt that Saunders was fluent in four languages.
However, one thing he could do was pick the best eleven players and put them into a team regardless of whether or not they were in their ‘correct’ positions. Wingers were converted into full-backs, forwards became central defenders and defenders moved into midfield. There was a touch of that thinking at Villa Park on Wednesday night.
Villa’s full-back pairing were a central defender and a midfielder, while John McGinn was moved inside, which might prove the shape of things to come. I can see Super John playing in this role for a few more years, particularly if the team can react to the changes as well as they did against Viking. It was certainly an attacking line-up, and attack it did from the off.
Midway through the first half a deflected cross came off the bar and a defender; from the resulting corner midfielder Ross Barkley put away a header any striker would have been proud of – roles interchanging again. Emiliano Buendia had a couple of headers; one well saved and another going wide when scoring seemed easier. He then took the opportunity to finally get a goal when a lengthy VAR debate resulted in a penalty.
Buendia almost got another early in the second half with a lovely backheel, although it didn’t take much longer for Villa’s third. A couple of quick passes and a searing run by Alysson, who got the goal regardless of what the officials might say.
That put Villa top of the Champions League. although I doubt Unai was all that bothered by the distinction, preferring to bring off players rather than push for more goals. Villa naturally began to look a bit shaky as a result and an admittedly spectacular goal by the visitors brought the 22-minute reign as league leaders to a close. It was initially ruled out, VAR took a look and we couldn’t get two decisions go our way in the same match.
Apart from the points, the most important thing to take was that Villa have finally got the squad strength to challenge domestically as well as in Europe. Ibrahim Mbaye was as impressive as always, Alysson is ludicrously quick and with skill to match his speed while there were useful late appearances for Leon Goretzka and Alejandro Garnacho.
The statistical anoraks pointed out that Villa are the second-quickest team to twenty victories in both versions of this competition. although to be fair Real Madrid managed to win it five times while they were setting the record. we’ve also won twelve consecutive European matches at home; stretching that record to thirteen will be a bit impressive. Do you want to bet against us?
