Unai Emery led Aston Villa to a shock 3-1 triumph against high-flying Manchester United in front of a sold-out Villa Park, on his return to the Premier League.
Villa wasted no time in Sunday afternoons affair with Leon Bailey’s blistering pace proving too much for the United backline to handle with the Jamaican putting the Villans a goal up after 7 minutes after latching onto a Jacob Ramsey through ball and coolly slotting past David de Gea. Emery was delighted when only 4 minutes later left back Lucas Digne curled an inch perfect free kick over the wall and into the back of the net as Villa Park erupted and Villa’s lead doubled.
United managed to get themselves back into the game on the stroke of half-time as a well hit volley from Luke Shaw cruelly deflected of Jacob Ramsey leaving the Villa keeper rooted to the ground watching the ball fly into the top corner. Villa sealed the deal in the 49th minute when the young Englishman Jacob Ramsey was again involved thundering the ball spectacularly into the top corner after good work from Ollie Watkins.
With this win Unai Emery becomes the first manager to record a Premier League win against Manchester United at Villa Park in 27 years as well as ending Ten Hag’s nine game unbeaten run with United.
After the game Unai Emery expressed his delight with the result saying “I was dreaming it, and I am so happy.” He went on to speak about consistency being needed and the challenge to sustain that level of performance week in week out both at Villa Park and in away games. He was also particularly complimentary of Jacob Ramsey and Leon Bailly’s performances calling them “amazing” in his post-match press conference.
The new Villa boss will have no time to rest with his side travelling to Manchester midweek to play United again in the third round of the Carabao Cup before a trip to the South coast on Sunday afternoon to play Brighton who have also recently brought in a new manager.
Ahead of the game, Manchester United manager Eric Ten Hag, controversially handed club legend Cristiano Ronaldo the captain’s armband. This came only 18 days after he walked down the tunnel in the 89th minute at Old Trafford after a disagreement with the manager after he chose not to use him as a substitute against Spurs. Ronaldo served a one match suspension handed out by Ten Hag for his actions and wasn’t allowed to train with the first team for a week.
When asked about this decision he said “He is an important part of the squad, we are happy with him now and he has to take even more of the leader role.” The decision was controversial with many fans criticising Ten Hag and saying that it showed weakness.