Jermain Defoe has hailed Aston Villa as a ‘massive club’ after they appointed ex-Arsenal boss, Unai Emery, as Steven Gerrard’s successor on Monday night.
The Tottenham academy coach added, whilst ‘it didn’t go well at Arsenal’ for the 50-year-old, Emery’s CV ‘speaks for itself’ after he swapped Villarreal for Aston Villa, as he told the Last Word on Premier League Productions (24/10/22 at 10:30 pm).
Last Thursday, Villa sacked Gerrard as their manager and the Midlands outfit didn’t take too long before finding a replacement with the trophy-laden coach in Emery.
Aston Villa are an ambitious club and they want to secure European football during these coming years, with Emery winning four Europa League titles during his career.
He is known to alter between a 4-4-2 and a 4-2-3-1 formation, as well as building solid foundations and a structure at clubs, before delivering a trophy for them.
If he does that in B6, then he will go down as an instant legend, as Defoe shared his thoughts on Emery’s return to English football.
“There will be a lot of Aston Villa fans who will be delighted with this,” said Defoe. “Unai Emery’s CV speaks for itself, especially in Europe. He’s done so well.
“I think he will have something to prove given his time at Arsenal didn’t go as well as he would have liked.
“If you look at their squad, they have top players. They have spent money, it proved over the weekend scoring four goals. Great firepower.
“If they do strengthen in January, I mean they are a massive football club. Unbelievable fans. There is an expectation and demand that you have to win games. I think at this stage, just focus on the next game, continue winning games and see where it takes you. Aston Villa is a massive football club, it should be in the top-half of the table.”
DOES EMERY HAVE A POINT TO PROVE?
It didn’t go as planned for Emery during his days in the Arsenal dugout and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he has a point to prove.
If it so happens to be that the Spaniard is extra motivated and eager to showcase his worth in the Premier League, then it benefits nobody but Villa fans.
Villa have a strong squad compared to those teams outside of Europe and exciting firepower with the likes of Leon Bailey, Ollie Watkins, Danny Ings and Emiliano Buendia, to name a few.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Arteta uses the Villa academy because it is one of the strongest in the country and he did hand Bukayo Saka his debut when he was a teenager.
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