Aston Villa continued their tremendous resurgence as they triumphed over Arsenal but Unai Emery may be unable to hide his distress after a Douglas Luiz development.
Villa moved to within two points of the summit of the Premier League with a narrow win over Mikel Arteta’s Gunners on Saturday (9 December) at Villa Park after John McGinn’s first-half winner.
Despite Arsenal’s pressure, Villa held on to back up their statement victory over champions Manchester City on Wednesday and record a club-record 15th straight home league victory.
According to BBC Sport, Aston Villa have taken more points after 16 games of a top-flight season only once before, in 1980–81, when they last won the title, and there is a genuine belief that they can break into the top four.
It is a true reflection of the club’s remarkable progress under the Spaniard, with the Villans now surely an outside bet for a Premier League title challenge if their current form continues.
However, with midfield maestro Luiz now ruled out of next weekend’s crucial fixture in West London, Emery may not be able to hide his disappointment ahead of their next league match against Brentford, as confirmed by injury expert Ben Dinnery (December 11).
The Brazilian midfielder picked up his fifth booking of the campaign against Arsenal and will now sit out of Sunday’s contest against Thomas Frank’s Bees, an absence that may prove absolutely costly given Luiz’s importance.
The Villans face off against Zrinjski Mostar in the Europa League on Thursday (14 December) for which Luiz may now start; however, he will be sorely missed next weekend.
Luiz, who could well be an attraction for any of the so-called “top six,” has been in scintillating form this season, having scored six goals and laid on four assists in 23 appearances [Transfermarkt] to help his side up to third in the Premier League table at the time of writing and within a small step closer to the Europa League knockout stages.
The Brazilian has started in all 16 of the Villans’ Premier League games this season, as they remarkably sit just two points off league leaders Liverpool.
He is also clearly looking to be more involved offensively during this campaign after registering 1.5 shots per game compared to the 0.9 he averaged last year, with his goal conversion rate rising from 18 percent to 25 percent [SofaScore].
The former Manchester City man has averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.52 in the opening few months of the season—the best average rating of any Villa player—having taken 75.8 touches per outing as he looks to get on the ball and make things happen.
He has made 1.2 key passes, laid on three big chances, and recorded a pass success rate of 89 percent, while his impressive 93 percent total from balls played in his own half shows that he doesn’t give too much away in potentially dangerous areas.
Considering he’s deployed deep in midfield for Emery, he still contributes heavily to the attack, ranking in the 90th percentile of midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues for goal-creating actions and the 81st percentile for shot-creating actions [FBRef], marking him out as one of the most complete all-rounders in his position.
Against Arsenal on Saturday, Luiz was at his influential best again, completing 100% of his long balls, recording one key pass, winning four of his ground duels, winning three tackles, and registering three clearances [SofaScore].
Now, Villa will miss that heavy influence against a tough and determined opponent in Brentford, who very rarely give much away on home turf and given the Villans’ tough struggles away from home, winning just three of their eight games so far, Luiz’s absence will be cruelly felt in midfield.
Emery has become a master in recent years at papering over small cracks in his squad to record unlikely victories but even he may not be able to hide his anxiety at the big crack in midfield that may emerge at the Gtech Community Stadium.
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