The Steven Gerrard era is finally over and Unai Emery is in the building at Aston Villa ready to take on his first big test against Manchester United on Sunday.
Under Gerrard, Villa were stale, lacked ideas, moved the ball slower than a tortoise on sand and played a narrow formation that bore the life out of the supporters.
But a proven winner is now in the building in four-time Europa League winner Unai Emery, and as Man United fans know too well from his Villarreal days, he can get the best out of the teams he manages.
THE EMERY REIGN
It has been over a week since Villa officially announced the 51-year-old as their new manager, but because of work permit delays, he wasn’t allowed to get stuck into the action until Wednesday.
But, when he did, Villa posted a training video on their website of the players getting put to their paces and perhaps a small sign of what is to come, starting against Erik ten Hag’s side at the weekend.
Emery could be heard during the clip telling his Villa players to ‘press high’ and it might be a tactic deployed against Manchester United.
It’s not something Villa used when Gerrard was in the dugout, instead, everyone just cramped on top of each other in the middle of the pitch.
Since the former Liverpool player was handed his P45, the Midlands outfit have produced two chalk-and-cheese-like results and performances.
Thrashing Brentford 4-0, including going 3-0 up inside 15 minutes at Villa Park, but taking a beating off Newcastle United at St James’ Park by the same scoreline last time out.
What’s in store on Sunday? Well, Villa have one of the worst home records against Man United, the last time they beat them, Alan Hansen was telling Sir Alex Ferguson ‘you can’t win anything with kids’, well, those kids are long gone, retired and old now.
If Emery manages to pick up Villa’s first home win against Man United since 1995, then it would start off his reign in an outstanding fashion.
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