Aston Villa in focus: Unai Emery would love to get one over ex-employers Arsenal again

When it looks as if you will achieve something and fail in the final stages, it is inevitable that others will ask why you didn’t get over the line.

And the fact Arsenal couldn’t stop Manchester City winning a third successive Premier League title last season after leading for most of the campaign, did make some people look at boss Mikel Arteta.

One of them was former Gunners captain Tony Adams, who said the other week that his old club might have captured their first crown since the Invincibles season of 2003-04 had Unai Emery been in charge.

Maybe it was a harsh assessment and there was no evidence of Adams or any other pundit mentioning that kind of potential when Emery was dismissed as Arsenal boss in November 2019.

But his subsequent exploits at Aston Villa have even had people talking about a first title there since 1981, particularly after they beat Manchester City 1-0 on Wednesday, and it is all a far cry from when he took over 13 months ago.

A win over the Gunners on Saturday would put them right in the mix and it is not too surprising to see the Spaniard enjoying life at Villa Park, as the circumstances of his two Premier League arrivals were vastly different.

At the Emirates, he replaced Arsene Wenger who, despite losing his way and a lot of his support on the North Bank, was still a club legend, something that could not be said of Emery’s Villa predecessor Steven Gerrard.

A 3-0 defeat at Fulham ended Gerrard’s tenure after then had gained just two wins from their opening 12 matches of the season, which followed a run of two victories in their final 11 games of the previous campaign.

But Emery gave clear direction to an underachieving team and helped them turn the corner as they won 16 of their remaining 26 games to claim a place in the Uefa Conference League.

They claimed 77 points from his first 38 matches which would have had them finish third if it had been repeated over the duration of last season.

It was some achievement and not a bad return on the £5.2m - just over five percent of the money Villa got from City for Jack Grealish - they paid to release Emery from his contract at Villarreal.

If City falter, that tally could be competitive this year - Leicester, the last shock winners of the title, needed just 81 to get over the line in 2016 - and at 33-1, Villa were shorter than both early leaders Tottenham and Newcastle before that pair played on Thursday.

But the chances are that two remarkable stats will have to remain in place for Villa to stay in the fight, although a top-four finish and a place in the Champions League looks within their scope.

Firstly, their league home form has been perfect and Leon Bailey’s goal against City gave them their 14th straight Villa Park success in midweek.

Arsenal were the last visitors to take anything from a trip there in February when two injury-time goals gave them a 4-2 win in a real thriller, but it is interesting to note that they have kept just two clean sheets in their last nine on their own patch.

Away form will have to accompany those successes and there is room for improvement. 

They have won three times on the road this season, beating Burnley and Chelsea, two teams who have had real problems performing in front of their own fans, and Tottenham, where Ollie Watkins’s goal earned them a 2-1 win after they were battered for most of the first half.

Before the international break, they were poor in a 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest and needed a late goal to earn a point at Bournemouth on Saturday, and similar slips have to be avoided if they want to firmly put themselves in the frame.

And then there is the offside trap that has plenty of people talking while Villa have been scaling the heights.

A well-drilled high line means Villa are the masters of getting their opponents caught offside and Erling Haaland struggled with it on Wednesday - City had been flagged for offside just 12 times before their trip to Villa Park and were pulled up on five occasions.

However these things never last forever and it could be that managers will turn more attention to breaking it down now Villa occupy such a lofty Premier League position.

Arsenal are fifth in the offside charts with 34, so they could find it more problematic.

If one team can master breaking it - Newcastle and Liverpool had few problems when Villa were on the road - then Emery could have a few issues.

But he has already got one over his old club when, as Villarreal boss, he knocked Arsenal out of the Europa League semi-finals on his way to claiming the trophy which put him back in the limelight.

And he would love to do it again on Saturday and have a few more Gunners legends suggest the club might have been unwise to let him go.

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