Matt Maher: Second big win sends a huge message to contenders
If Villa’s win over Manchester City last week was a work of art, Saturday’s follow-up against Arsenal was simply hard work.
Yet it was no less valuable, or impressive from Unai Emery’s team, who with a club record 15th consecutive home league victory completed the most celebrated 72 hours seen at Villa Park in many a decade and delivered final confirmation that, right at this moment, they are very much in the title race, whether the head coach likes it or not.
Emery might be sticking to his claim there are seven stronger contenders in the top flight but the manner of these back-to-back wins, against the reigning champions and the team who led the table heading into the weekend, have proved his Villa side firmly belong in the conversation. They approached City and Arsenal as their equals and bested them both.
Sure, they rode their luck against the Gunners. There was little of the finesse seen against City and none of the dominance. This was ragged, often uncomfortably so. After an electric start which saw them take a seventh-minute lead through John McGinn, the effects of their exertions just three days previously began to take hold. Several times Arsenal looked almost certain to level. More than once, particularly during a tortuous opening 20 minutes of the second half, you wondered whether Villa weren’t about to fold?
By the finish, however, they were still standing. They almost always are. Villa remain the only team in the Premier League not to have lost any points from a winning position and Saturday was perhaps the example yet of the granite hard mentality which has underpinned their progress over the past year. When the going gets tough, Emery’s team do not blink.
Villa have only blown winning positions on three occasions since the Spaniard walked through the door 13 months ago, when they were perched just above relegation zone. This win made it 84 points from 41 matches during that period – evidence suggests they are only going to get better. The truth is Villa are only a surprise package to those who haven’t been paying attention.
