Unai Emery is performing miracles which should infuriate Manchester United
One of the enduring comedic threads of this nascent Premier League season has been Manchester United‘s defence, and the lack of a case thereof.
The galaxy-brained transfer ethos of INEOS, which dictates that only one position can be recruited for in a single summer transfer window, has shaped that absurd statistic about their apocalypse-surviving backline.
The same four which started Erik ten Hag’s first defeat in August 2022 in front of David de Gea, has featured regularly at the beginning of the 2026-27 campaign under Michael Carrick, ostensibly protecting Senne Lammens.
Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw are inevitable. Often inevitably sh*t, but inevitable nonetheless.
It is of considerably less interest that another Premier League team has blended similarly tainted ghosts of Manchester United’s defensive past with rather aged remnants of their own.
But then Unai Emery has built the backbone of his Aston Villa team on those spare parts far more competently than anyone at Old Trafford could possibly dream of.
A single place and point separate Villa and Manchester United, but as with the latest team to be conquered by Emery’s perennially false-starting juggernaut, that is a mere facade of quality. In terms of momentum, the former is starting to establish something the latter has been unable to harness for years.
Manchester United are one of two Premier League teams without a clean sheet this season, and Ipswich at least have the excuse of being Ipswich.
Villa, after starting with three goalless games and a four-match winless Premier League run, have won four of their last five and drawn the other, while boasting a perfect Champions League record.
The difference between the two teams is stark.
And for Villa, beating Newcastle 1-0 away was every bit as satisfying, if not more so, than sticking six past Fenerbahce at home in midweek.
The defensive display at St James’ Park was their best of the campaign so far. And it was delivered by a back four consisting of a player they signed in the Championship, one they bought from second-tier Nottingham Forest more than six years ago, and a pair of Manchester United rejects.
Tyrone Mings called it “a perfect Premier League away performance”. Matty Cash rose past Douglas Luiz and into 15th for all-time Villa Premier League appearances. Aaron Wan-Bissaka acquitted himself well on the left. Victor Lindelof directed it all.
“He is a fantastic guy and a fantastic professional,” Emery said of his new leader, the free agent who has stepped up to replace £55m Ezri Konsa.
“When we need Harwood-Bellis, he will play in the same way. Why? Because he has qualities like Lindelof and he is a very good example for him. He needs to watch him every day in training and playing matches.”
The Sweden international joined Manchester United before Martinez, Dalot and Maguire, who arrived in the same summer as Wan-Bissaka.
A succession of coaches has failed to make those composite parts work together, but Emery has recycled expensive Glazer waste into something competent and reliable.
Cash was right in what he said after the Newcastle win, of course: “I wouldn’t say it’s just defence; it’s more structure as a team.”
But that only underlines his manager’s genius further. While one team stutters, stalls and uses a defence frozen in time as an excuse, a direct rival has seen an opportunity and players worth coaching in an actual team.
Emery might be the only man capable of making defenders Manchester United signed ages ago look competent.
