Aston Villa impressed against Manchester City, in every aspect of the game. In possession, the ability to draw out the opposition into their own defensive third, to create space behind, is really efficient, relying on Pau Torres excellent pass quality.
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Once the press is bypassed, Aston Villa don’t do much passes : direct way of play with lots of runs in behind with Watkins and Bailey, Man City has been frequently caught behind the defense.
In midfield, while some teams have a double pivot with one player as #6 and another as #8, Emery strongly insists to have both Kamara and Douglas Luiz with short distance to combine quickly, and keep this pass channel alive no matter the cost.
Out of possession, Aston Villa marked pretty well Stones and Akanji, both main creators for Man City in first phase of build-up. McGinn and Bailey jumped to the purple area in the good timing to dismantle City’s build-up.
Douglas Luiz was the key player in the press, because he had the difficult mission to man-mark Stones, very intelligent in his moves, but Luiz tracked him well to reduce his impact on the game.
When I see this Aston Villa, it automatically reminds me the way Villarreal implemented build-up under Emery : wide fullbacks, double pivot to orientate the build-up to channels, and after, through ball and exploit spaces left by the opponent. Same scheme, same efficiency.
Martinez is also another weapon in possession for Emery, given his on-ball qualities. As I said, having wide fullbacks eases out this way of build-up.
And Aston Villa frequently ended up with spaces behind to exploit, given Man city players were stuck into Aston Villa’s defensive third, so more time to replace the defensive block. That’s where Emery took the advantage over Guardiola, imo.
This thread is a very good complement to what I said
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