'More Comfortable Away From Home’ – Villa’s Turnaround Story
- John Townley, from Birmingham Live, previews Aston Villa’s trip to King Power Stadium
- Leicester face the Villans in the Premier League on Tuesday evening
- The Premier League clash has a 7:45pm kick-off
- City defeated Villa 4-2 in February's reverse fixture
Fellow Midlands side Villa, who are on an impressive run of four wins in their last five outings, most recently coming out 2-0 winners over Chelsea in London, make the short journey to King Power Stadium on Tuesday evening (7:45pm kick-off).
Currently ninth in the league, and only two points behind Brighton & Hove Albion in sixth, the Villans are in great form, which journalist Townley believes hasn’t been seen for some time.
“This is probably the best position that the club has been in since 2010,” he told LCFC TV’s Matchday Live. “The season didn’t start well, with two wins in 11 games but since Unai Emery has come in, the form has been really good. Only Manchester City and Arsenal, arguably among the best teams in Europe, have a better points per game than Villa.
“We’re unbeaten in the last five, with four wins and a draw, so it’s really positive among the supporters who are starting to chat about the potential of European places, but I think that’s possibly a step too far at the moment.
“When Steven Gerrard was in charge, there were a number of factors why he wasn’t get the best out of the players. The system wasn’t working, our £25m defender in Diego Carlos gets injured, [Boubacar] Kamara who is one of the best players also got injured, so there are many reasons why it didn’t work out."
City Train For Villa Test
A look at Leicester City's Monday morning training session ahead of the visit of Aston Villa this week.
Since his appointment, Emery’s side have been reborn, and the Birmingham Live reporter commends the former Villarreal manager’s work in achieving stability at Villa Park.
“Since Unai has come in, there has been a change in our set-up," he told us. "We’ve switched to a 4-4-2 come 4-2-2-2 formation which gets the best out of players such as John McGinn and Ollie Watkins, who is on fire. This is because he’s having more opportunities in games. He can miss two chances but if he takes one, that could win you the game.
“We also keep a lot of clean sheets too, we’ve only conceded one goal in the last five, which was a penalty. So no goals conceded from open play in the last five games is quite remarkable.
“When Leicester beat Villa 4-2, it was a very unexpected result. Leicester have always got it in them to play well and get results, but that heavy result was a shock in the system to Villa fans.
“Since then, we’ve tightened up ever so slightly, and we’re still getting results which is important, and the fans are hoping this isn’t just a bounce, but a new side of Villa which carries on for the rest of the season and into the next.”
Implementing a new style of football, and a newly discovered wealth of confidence in one another’s abilities have been critical in Villa producing winning displays on the road, which has placed them among Europe’s finest in the form table.
He added: “The system that Emery wants to play just works. He likes to build from the back. That is eye-catching but at the same time, the hallmarks of his system is that we defend the goal and get bodies behind the ball, especially away from home.
“Only Arsenal and the two Manchester clubs have won more away games this season than Villa, which is incredible because Emery has only had seven games, and every game we’ve won away from home has come under his management.
“The away form has been very good and there hasn’t been one reason why we’ve become masters on the road, but it would have to be down to keeping it tight and keeping clean sheets.
“And when you’ve got Watkins at the other end who I believe has six goals in his last eight, so you’ve always got a chance of winning games. Once you’ve got players in attack who are brimming with confidence, it can push Villa into a promising position.
The two sides met only a couple of months ago, when the Foxes were victorious, as James Maddison, Kelechi Iheanacho, Tetê and Dennis Praet all netted in a 4-2 display.
With the memory of this defeat still in the Villans minds, Townley confirms that Emery’s side will be looking for a chance to right some wrongs on Tuesday evening.
“The reverse fixture wasn’t actually that long ago, so Villa will be looking for redemption,” the journalist confirmed. “But I think in that game, Leicester pounced on Villa’s errors and led them into those traps. Our home form until that point wasn’t great anyway. We drew with Wolves, who weren’t doing great.
“Weirdly, even though home form has improved, we feel more comfortable playing away. I think there's 40,000 fans at Villa Park getting on the players' backs to go forward, whereas away they just focus on not making mistakes.
“Villa haven’t seen this style of football in so long, because we were in the Championship before getting promoted, when your aim is to stay up, which doesn’t always give you the freedom to play expressive football.”
All times BST.