Unai Emery has disclosed the significant, deliberate change he made to his game plan prior to Aston Villa’s 6-1 thrashing of Brighton & Hove Albion.
The head coach of Villa opted to make a slight adjustment in an effort to breach Brighton’s defense, and it was a better choice than he could have ever thought.
Ollie Watkins netted a hat-trick and notched an assist on a dream day as Villa took advantage of the Seagulls’ defensive frailties and mistakes.
Emery avoided Brighton’s customary success with ground fights in favor of traveling far and wide to reach the other side, which was one of the main reasons Watkins was able to develop into such a menace.
“They were the strikers, they were John McGinn, Nicolo Zaniolo. We did fantastic with Ollie Watkins fighting with the defence and Moussa Diaby. Then we needed to try to keep ball possession and build.”
That’s exactly what the men in claret and blue did, though it didn’t exactly take long for the attacks to “build” as Villa were often in on goal at the click of a finger.
Watkins and Diaby linked up excellently on the transition with at least one of the pair directly involved in every single one of the six goals scored.
Emery’s tactical versatility is one of his biggest talents and it really showed as Villa leapfrogged Brighton to soar into the Premier League top five.
