Analysis: Nervy but Aston Villa keep clocking up the wins
Another Saturday and another Villa win far nervier than it needed to be.
For the third weekend running Unai Emery’s team put supporters through the wringer and did their bit to drive up sales of beta blockers in the Birmingham area.
Having previously threatened to let both Fulham and Nottingham Forest into matches they had been dominating, they did precisely that by letting slip a two-goal advantage at Luton.
Yet when Lucas Digne then headed an 89th-minute winner, it merely confirmed Emery’s men as the ruthless, serial winners they are.
No matter the method, no Villa team has done it better since the last one to win the league in 1981.
This was their 32nd victory in 52 Premier League matches under Emery and their 17th in 27 games this season. With 11 matches still to play, they are well on course to surpass the mark of 21 wins achieved by Graham Taylor and Ron Atkinson’s respective runners-up. The latter’s 1992-93 vintage, it should be noted, had four games more to reach that total.
Digne’s winner was the fourth Villa have scored in the 85th minute or later this season and they have earned 11 points thanks to goals netted beyond that point.
It is a big reason they find themselves today with a five-point cushion inside the top four and substantial advantage over sixth-placed Manchester United.
