That follows a period which brought no wins in eight games and a period of having trouble stamping their authority on home games. Has Unai Emery been “found out”?
“No, but maybe they got a little bit complacent in how well they were doing in the Champions League, beating the likes of Bayern Munich,” Stephen Warnock tells Tribalfootball in an exclusive conversation on behalf of BetBrain.
“Suddenly it's like; “well, we can beat anyone and we're a top, top team. Well, with that comes pressure and teams then come to Villa Park and sit deep against you. I think they've found that very difficult,” Warnock ponders while pointing to the loss of a key player in the summer.
“If you look back to last season and why Aston Villa was so strong, for the majority of the season it was because of Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara. The latter went out with an ACL injury and he's not quite back to his best yet and Douglas Luiz was moved on to cover the financial fair play. Douglas Luiz is a huge loss to Villa. He controlled game, he took pressure off Aston Villa at key times in games.
“Youri Tielemans started the season OK, but I just don't think he's at the level of Douglas Luiz. Then there was a little dip in form from arguably the best player, Morgan Rogers. At the beginning of the season, he was so creative and so dynamic. When the heartbeat of your team isn't quite firing on all cylinders, you're going to have a knock-on effect around the team as well.”