View: Three things learned from Aston Villa 3-1 Manchester United
It’s safe to say the Unai Emery era got off to the near perfect start with Aston Villa sweeping aside Manchester United 3-1 at Villa Park.
Goals from Leon Bailey, Lucas Digne and Jacob Ramsey were enough for Villa to get back to winning ways after their disappointing 4-0 defeat against Newcastle United.
Villa played with intensity throughout the fixture and gave Erik ten Hag’s side little chance of salvaging a point from the fixture. The win takes Emery’s side up to 13th in the table and three points above the relegation zone.
Here Villa News looks at three things we learnt from their win over the Red Devils.
Jacob Ramsey show
Jacob Ramsey was recalled to the starting lineup for Villa and his performance against United makes the decision by Aaron Danks to leave him on the bench even more ridiculous. The 21-year-old produced a man-of-the-match display which was topped off by Villa’s third goal. Under Emery’s stewardship, we could well see these types of displays become more of a regular occurrence.
It was a complete midfield performance from Ramsey, who made five tackles, one interception, and one clearance (Whoscored). Going forward he was also exceptional with a goal, assist, and one key pass during the fixture. He simply has to be starting every fixture from now on.
Work rate
In the first half, Manchester United didn’t have any time on the ball, with Villa pressing and pushing them into certain areas of the pitch. The players clearly bought into the Spaniard’s way of thinking early on and the win on Sunday (6 November) will only see confidence in the group grow further.
Villa have a number of combative midfielders in their ranks and the likes of Douglas Luiz, Ramsey and Leander Dendoncker could make life really difficult for opposing teams who are looking to play out with the ball.
Formation
Straight away we’ve seen Emery implement a three-man midfield, with Ramsey the most advanced player. It will now be intriguing to see if the 50-year-old remains consistent with the system he wants to implement over the coming weeks. Whilst at Villarreal, he used the 4-4-2 formation almost every game. However, he clearly feels Ramsey is better in a more advanced position.
It certainly worked like a treat for Villa today.
In other Aston Villa news, Emery has revealed he does not intend to make a big change that Steven Gerrard made a big deal of in pre-season.