Sky Sports journalist stunned by ‘massive’ Aston Villa development, ‘I’ve never seen…’

Sky Sports journalist stunned by ‘massive’ Aston Villa development, ‘I’ve never seen…’
We’re delighted to welcome Sky Sports journalist Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist as each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…

Dan Bardell admits he’s never seen a team dominate Manchester City like Aston Villa did when the two sides met on 6 December.

A second-half goal from Leon Bailey secured Villa a 1-0 victory after limiting the Premier League champions to just two shots in the game.

Unai Emery’s side then followed that up with another 1-0 win over Arsenal on 9 December courtesy of John McGinn’s early strike, cementing their third-place spot in the table and taking them to within two points of leaders Liverpool.

Bardell said the two results were a “massive” sign of how far the Villans have come in such a short space of time under the Spanish boss.

Speaking exclusively to Villa News, Bardell said: “Obviously two fantastic results and brilliant to see the team is capable of winning in different ways to keep two clean sheets against the top two from last year, Manchester City being the treble winners.

“I think that’s something Villa have struggled to do, keep clean sheets, so to do it against the two best teams from last season is a massive sign of how far Villa have come since Unai Emery came in.

“The Man City game, I’ve had a season ticket for 31 years and, bearing in mind who the opponent was, that’s the best I’ve ever seen Villa play. Just to have that level of control against the best team in the world is something I really didn’t expect to see.

“You see teams beat Man City and it might be a bit of a smash and grab, playing on the counterattack, but I’ve never seen a team dominate Man City like Villa did by creating so many chances and limiting them to so little.

“The Arsenal game was just winning in a completely different way, it’s two huge results that really show Villa are going to be in and amongst the best teams in the Premier League this season.”

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