A coat was launched into the Villa Park sky. Unai Emery’s coat, to be precise. His team are flying, too. Emery is taking Aston Villa to stratospheric heights and it felt fitting that Morgan Rogers got the goal that prompted the Spaniard to propel his padded jacket upwards. “My adrenaline,” said Emery, whose celebration looked more angry than joyous but Villa have plenty to enjoy.
A seventh consecutive league win, their best run in 36 years, came courtesy of the increasingly remarkable Rogers. The title challenge no one saw coming is gathering speed. “After a poor start we can feel happy,” said Emery. In the bottom three at the autumn equinox, Villa end the shortest day of the year in the top three.
Rogers’s own transformation within three months has been similarly staggering. Booed by a section of the Villa support against Bologna in September, he now looks like the Premier League’s form player. A second successive double featured another wonder goal. Rogers is in a rich vein of form. “Morgan Rogers played brilliant,” said Emery. “Today and last week Morgan raised his performance. He is the protagonist, a fighter and a very good guy.”
Manchester United, meanwhile, are stumbling and staggering. A day when they could have gone fifth instead ended with them beaten, bedraggled, looking patched-up and with a distinctly makeshift midfield duo of Lisandro Martinez and the debutant Jack Fletcher. If it is an indictment of United that Villa are outperforming them, it is another that, while Ruben Amorim spent £230m in the summer, Emery possessed the superior side and the stronger bench.
Amorim’s distinctly unusual team showed some defensive resolve in the first half and put in a spirited attempt to secure a second equaliser. It is, though, Villa who have more cohesion, more momentum and a winning habit. It is 16 victories in their last 18 outings. The last five have all come by one-goal margins. This team can hold their nerve. They can win big moments.
Certainly Rogers can. Urged on by Amadou Onana, he ended his afternoon punching the air in front of the Holte End, a crowd favourite once again. “Sometimes it’s your day, sometimes it isn’t,” he shrugged. “Luckily lately it has been.”
He seems confident enough to attempt almost anything. He almost scored in the eighth minute with a backheel flick. When he did strike, it was magnificent. He took a touch to hook John McGinn’s pass out of the air, another to stop the ball coming out and then, after a winding run, for the curled finish that left Senne Lammens motionless. “You want every one to go in the top corner like that,” Rogers added. Both of his goals were bent in from a similar angle, the second from closer range after he latched onto Ayden Heaven’s clearance.
It rendered it all the odder that Rogers had almost waited until Christmas to score at Villa Park this season; his previous five goals had all come on the road. Then he eviscerated United. “Rogers can go both sides; it is really hard to defend a player like that one against one,” rued Amorim.
United almost had their answer to Rogers. One interpretation is that it became a duel between the Englishman and Matheus Cunha. Two shot-happy players had 13 attempts between them. The Brazilian levelled once and should have done again.
After Patrick Dorgu caught Matty Cash dawdling in possession, the summer signing curled a shot in. After only one goal for United, he now has two in a week. Cunha ought to have had two in an afternoon. After an unusually accurate cross by an unusually effective Dorgu, he headed wastefully wide from six yards. If nothing else, Cunha was persistent; he came close in the third minute and was later denied by Emi Martinez.
But, as United began life without Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo, they had little other threat. Benjamin Sesko was a particular disappointment. He lacked conviction when he had an effort blocked by Martinez, the goalkeeper who hoped to join United on deadline day and now may be relieved they preferred to buy Lammens.
“I think we were the better team,” insisted Amorim. “We deserved so much more.” Some individuals emerged with credit. Heaven, twice United’s early rescuer, had a decent game. So did Dorgu.
But Amorim’s plans were affected by the rarity of a Bruno Fernandes injury, meaning the skipper did not return for the second half and a midfield already without the banned Casemiro and the sidelined Kobbie Mainoo took on a different look with the defender Martinez and the rookie Fletcher. “It is really strange,” said Amorim, unaccustomed to seeing his compatriot sidelined. “It is going to be a while.” And the bigger damage of the day may not be the defeat, but the loss of the man who has been captain, constant and catalyst.
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