Unai Emery

[Monty]

This from the pre-match fat-chewing seems prescient:

I'm hoping in training he has quickly discovered any players who simply cannot control a football, or those who cannot move into open spaces quickly

Ha, didn't take him long did it? Sensational impact.

[Brazilian Villain]

To have us playing like he did yesterday in such a short space of time is really quite astonishing. Maybe a factor was that ManU were quite poor but even so our midfield for the first time this season seemed to have or, created loads of space.  It's probably a bit of both.

Probably a bit of both. This summed up the mood on the Yanited forum which I thought was fair enough.

Think TenH got totally outdone by the new Villa guy today, Utd were leggy and they set up to do us and it worked, some very tired nothing performances and the usual suspects played the way they do. Nearly all the prem teams can produce if you let them and to me that's what happened, Utd went about it the wrong way.

Ronnie is obviously a gonna and Rashers has to be honed into one position, probs out on the left. Eric just looked tired, loads of nothing passes that went nowhere, he can't be playing so many games. As good as Martinez is, you play Lindelof and you will concede. Utd are just not a very good squad.

[Risso]

That van der Beek is absolute muck. Clearly only getting time on the pitch because of his past relationship with ten Hag.

[algy]

To have us playing like he did yesterday in such a short space of time is really quite astonishing. Maybe a factor was that ManU were quite poor but even so our midfield for the first time this season seemed to have or, created loads of space.  It's probably a bit of both. Already we have a few previously under performing players buying into his ideas. Watkins, our striker was brilliant and didn't have a shot of any description I can remember.  Ramsey, our said to be driving force was suddenly our driving force.  I'm so pleased for him as he's a player. Martinez for the Digne free kick, like a conductor controlling his orchestra, a worthy captain he is.  Mings, our unofficial real captain, coolness personified. In fact all of them to a man subs included put out a great team performance and can now go and do the same on Thursday with confidence.

We made them poor. Our tactics were all about forcing their players to make decisions and then knowing how to react to what they did. What it meant was there was always space for at least 1 from Buendia, Bailey and Ramsey to move into and make things happen. Ramsey in particular took full advantage of that space.

I often think this, quite often teams look poor just because their opponents know how to play against them.  I think that's a certain amount of what the "new manager bounce" is, actually - it's harder to prepare against sides with a new manager, because you can't just watch their last dozen games to get an idea of how they'll play.   That, to me, was the telling thing about Gerrard.  Remove those first couple of months where we had a certain amount of 'the element of surprise', and we performed no better than we had been under Deano (when playing without Joe).

Remains to be seen whether Unai Emery can keep things going after the other managers have worked out how he's going to set up the Villa side, but I have to say that I've far more faith in him being able to do that than I had with Gerrard.

[Drummond]

That van der Beek is absolute muck. Clearly only getting time on the pitch because of his past relationship with ten Hag.

First start for him yesterday and you could (or perhaps couldn't!) see why.

[Drummond]

We came with a plan. We executed it. We changed it when required.

It just looked like a proper team, the whole group together (which to be fair was evident before he came too but in this case, it includes the manager).

[OCD]

To have us playing like he did yesterday in such a short space of time is really quite astonishing. Maybe a factor was that ManU were quite poor but even so our midfield for the first time this season seemed to have or, created loads of space.  It's probably a bit of both. Already we have a few previously under performing players buying into his ideas. Watkins, our striker was brilliant and didn't have a shot of any description I can remember.  Ramsey, our said to be driving force was suddenly our driving force.  I'm so pleased for him as he's a player. Martinez for the Digne free kick, like a conductor controlling his orchestra, a worthy captain he is.  Mings, our unofficial real captain, coolness personified. In fact all of them to a man subs included put out a great team performance and can now go and do the same on Thursday with confidence.

We made them poor. Our tactics were all about forcing their players to make decisions and then knowing how to react to what they did. What it meant was there was always space for at least 1 from Buendia, Bailey and Ramsey to move into and make things happen. Ramsey in particular took full advantage of that space.

I often think this, quite often teams look poor just because their opponents know how to play against them.  I think that's a certain amount of what the "new manager bounce" is, actually - it's harder to prepare against sides with a new manager, because you can't just watch their last dozen games to get an idea of how they'll play.   That, to me, was the telling thing about Gerrard.  Remove those first couple of months where we had a certain amount of 'the element of surprise', and we performed no better than we had been under Deano (when playing without Joe).

Remains to be seen whether Unai Emery can keep things going after the other managers have worked out how he's going to set up the Villa side, but I have to say that I've far more faith in him being able to do that than I had with Gerrard.

I think there will be a high degree of tactical flexibility with Emery though. He'll change things in-game let alone from game to game. It's not like Gerrard where he had one way of playing and opposition teams worked out how to play against it.

[SaddVillan]

To have us playing like he did yesterday in such a short space of time is really quite astonishing. Maybe a factor was that ManU were quite poor but even so our midfield for the first time this season seemed to have or, created loads of space.  It's probably a bit of both. Already we have a few previously under performing players buying into his ideas. Watkins, our striker was brilliant and didn't have a shot of any description I can remember.  Ramsey, our said to be driving force was suddenly our driving force.  I'm so pleased for him as he's a player. Martinez for the Digne free kick, like a conductor controlling his orchestra, a worthy captain he is.  Mings, our unofficial real captain, coolness personified. In fact all of them to a man subs included put out a great team performance and can now go and do the same on Thursday with confidence.

We made them poor. Our tactics were all about forcing their players to make decisions and then knowing how to react to what they did. What it meant was there was always space for at least 1 from Buendia, Bailey and Ramsey to move into and make things happen. Ramsey in particular took full advantage of that space.

I often think this, quite often teams look poor just because their opponents know how to play against them.  I think that's a certain amount of what the "new manager bounce" is, actually - it's harder to prepare against sides with a new manager, because you can't just watch their last dozen games to get an idea of how they'll play.   That, to me, was the telling thing about Gerrard.  Remove those first couple of months where we had a certain amount of 'the element of surprise', and we performed no better than we had been under Deano (when playing without Joe).

Remains to be seen whether Unai Emery can keep things going after the other managers have worked out how he's going to set up the Villa side, but I have to say that I've far more faith in him being able to do that than I had with Gerrard.

Take your point about teams not knowing what to expect because they won't have had a chance to see Emery's Villa, but football is to some extent a game of poker in which you only reveal your hand when the whistle blows.

Wouldn't surprise me if Emery has 38 different hands with which to play.

[MattW]

This is great: https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1589593237202915329?t=bJjfUKDttGorxJqlWs_6cg&s=19.

[LeeB]

BRITISH FOOTBALL MANAGERS ARE RUBBISH NOWADAYS

I’m just off to have that printed on t-shirt

I'll one in long sleeve, ta

[Rory]

It wasn’t a great Man United team yesterday but who cares? They’ve beaten enough shit Villa sides down the decades and still gloated, goaded and celebrated like they’d won the cup so fuck em. It was our turn yesterday.

Too right!

[LeeB]

It wasn’t a great Man United team yesterday but who cares? They’ve beaten enough shit Villa sides down the decades and still gloated, goaded and celebrated like they’d won the cup so fuck em. It was our turn yesterday.

For a laugh I had a look at their match thread on Red Cafe, and there was one lonely comment at the end which was something like 'see they've won the cup then'.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

[Monty]

Weird isn't it? You can't give it the big 'un about being the biggest club in the world or whatever and be surprised when people are extra-happy to beat you. Like, when we lost to Bradford etc in the cups it never shocked me that they were happier to beat us than Chesterfield, say.

[boozey182]

Yesterday we controlled the entire game, especially when they had the ball. They could pass it about, but only where we wanted them to pass it. Other than a two-minute spell at the end of the first half, I don't remember them having a shot on target.

I can't remember the last time I was so confident that we were going to hold on to a lead - amazing considering it was against them. My dad is 70 this month and he was having kittens every time we passed it around the back, but it was all part of the plan - forcing them to leave gaps in their midfield that we could then work it into. To have given our players the confidence to play that way is nothing short of a miracle considering how we've played this season.

I think the most telling thing was that so many of their fans were leaving before the 90 minutes were up, considering the history of the fixture. They knew they were beat. It was the best performance by a Villa side for a couple of years. Absolute dominance of a team in good form.

[LeeB]

Weird isn't it? You can't give it the big 'un about being the biggest club in the world or whatever and be surprised when people are extra-happy to beat you. Like, when we lost to Bradford etc in the cups it never shocked me that they were happier to beat us than Chesterfield, say.

Their celebrations at Villa Park down the last 25 years have been notably over-zealous, considering at no time have we been genuine rivals with them.

For me, it's because there's a huge overlap with (*spits*) Brummie Reds and Bluenoses, and it's basic noses getting a proxy win over us.