Unai Emery’s Aston Villa rounded off their 2023 pre-season with a scrappy 2-1 win over La Liga giants, Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium on Saturday.
Starting off against Walsall in July and ending with Valencia, just like in 2022, Aston Villa were unbeaten throughout the summer, as the real stuff starts next week.
Here we take a look at five things we learned from the 2-1 win over Valencia:
Ollie Watkins is cooking
Under Emery last season, he struck 13 goals from 25 games and he is showing signs that he is going to produce the goods again this forthcoming season.
In the first half, in what was a pretty scrappy and error-prone encounter, he pounced on a mistake inside Villa’s attacking third, ran at the Valencia defence and fired the ball low into the bottom corner from outside of the box. It was Ollie Watkins at his clinical best, a player oozing confidence, cooking like never before and ready to start the Premier League opener against Newcastle United.
Torres at left-back
With Alex Moreno injured, only Lucas Digne has been the senior left-back on tour, which has seen Emery use summer signing Pau Torres as a left-back.
The former Villarreal player, who was up against his old rivals yesterday, didn’t impress out on that left and was hooked at half-time for Digne.
Now, it’s pre-season and Emery could have just been rotating for the sake of it, for fitness levels and for other tactical reasons, but Villa struggled to play the ball out from the back from Torres’ end and he was getting caught out with a lot of balls in-behind.
Buendia has to start over Bailey
Leon Bailey was also subbed off at half-time by Emery alongside Torres, with the 25-year-old producing a poor showing, but it is just pre-season and he did return later than everyone else.
He just isn’t up to scratch yet and needs more minutes under his belt. Emi Buendia was the one who replaced him and, along with getting on the scoresheet, he was more of a threat.
The Argentina international has to start over Bailey against Newcastle United for Villa’s Premier League opener next week – that’s if Emery has to pick between the two.
Kamara is a Rolls-Royce
As mentioned above, this wasn’t the cleanest or smoothest of games, with both sides struggling to really control the match and have a vibrant flow to their game.
But one man that was moping up everything, reading danger, especially on the end of his own box, was the underrated defensive machine, Boubacar Kamara.
A free transfer from the 2022 summer window, he is a certain starter for Villa’s trip to St James’ Park and a player that will be pivotal if they are to go to the next level.
Coutinho looking better
It has been a tough road for Philippe Coutinho in Villa colours, but this summer, he has looked much sharper and he is showing signs of improvement.
Villa should stick with the 31-year-old, rather than sell him to a Saudi club, because he might have one last dance in him.
As soon as he was brought on against Valencia, he made an instant impact with his run and well-picked-out pass that was slotted home by Buendia. And that then gave him the confidence to be a threat on the ball during the second half, forcing the Valencia players to constantly foul him.
It hasn’t worked for Coutinho at Villa, there’s no denying that. But it hasn’t worked under Gerrard’s stewardship, not Emery. Let him have one try under Emery and let’s see what follows.
