Jamie Carragher has pinpointed a surprising strength Aston Villa have shown this season so far under Unai Emery.
Aston Villa continued their excellent campaign with a 2-1 win over Ange Postecoglou’s title contenders Tottenham Hotspurs. The win saw Villa move into the top four and currently sit just two points behind Arsenal who are leading the league.
Unai Emery has put this Villa side possibly in the position of being in the title race at Christmas time which is an incredible achievement.
Villa have been on fire and have won four of their last five games through a combination of deadly attacking play and solid defensive football.
Now, while reviewing the win on Sunday, Jamie Carragher has mentioned a surprising aspect of Villa’s play which is impressing.
Carragher on surprising Villa strength
Speaking on Sky Sports on Monday night, Carragher was discussing Villa’s defensive line which has caught teams out more than any other. Villa have on eight occasions caught their opponents offside more than five times in a game.
The next most was Spurs who had done it just twice. On this, Carragher said: “It’s about being, defensively no matter who you are no matter what system you play, whether you’re home, whether you’re away, no matter where you are from the world, the most important thing defensively for any team is being compact.
“You can decide where that line is but as long as from back to front there’s 25-30 yards between your players so that’s what he [Emery] does and you can see it’s been massively successful in terms of the numbers,
“You look at that backline now and as that ball comes forward, Spurs who played through Aston Villa at times there’s no doubt about that but we see this high line if you like, is it high? If you’re pressing high your line has to be here [gestures to centre circle], it’s about keeping the team compact and look at all the players, [they’re all] side-on, side-on, side-on… that is a massive thing about playing not about if it’s a high line.
“You can see, Son’s gone too early, Johnson’s gone too early, they work on it every day, so this is a major strength for Aston Villa.”
This is a surprising positive for Villa, however it’s no coincidence and clearly something Emery has them trained expertly in doing. For now, it is working so it makes sense to continue taking advantage.
Are Villa title contenders?
Obviously we aren’t expecting a title race never mind to be within two points in a few months time, but right now it is difficult to not look at Villa as contenders.
To be in the top four, beating teams like Spurs away from home and just two points behind Arsenal in December is a massive achievement.
Over the course of the last year too, consistently Villa have shown they are at that level and therefore we can’t doubt that Emery is a title contender.
