Unai Emery issued a hands-off warning on Douglas Luiz after the midfielder helped Villa climb into the Premier League top four
Villa’s incredible start to the season has been largely attributed to Luiz’s play, and Arsenal is reportedly interested in the Brazil international after three previous approaches for him were turned down in 2022.
However, Emery does not want to see the 25-year-old leave Villa Park anytime soon despite the fact that he has subsequently signed a contract that runs through 2026.
“Douglas is playing very well and he improves a lot,” he stated. His level of dedication is astounding. Of course, I want to keep him as I am really happy with him.
“I think he’s happy with us, his commitment with his national team and his performances like today are amazing, fantastic. I want him.”
Emery, meanwhile, felt a tactical half-time tweak was key to Villa’s comeback to beat Tottenham and move into the Champions League positions.
Villa were fortunate to be level at half-time after Pau Torres’ equaliser cancelled out Giovani Lo Celso’s opener but the introduction of Leon Bailey and Youri Tielemens at the break led to a much improved second half performance.
Tielemans set up Ollie Watkins for the winning goal and Emery said: “We were struggling on the right side and tactically it was my correction.
I had to decide what to do about it. We weren’t attacking on the right as much as we were on the left offensively. Cash posed a chance of receiving a yellow card, therefore Leon Bailey and Youri Tielemans attempted to split off the two players. While the other handled the running, one handled the passes. They succeeded.
Under Emery, Villa has now accrued 77 points from 38 league games.
In response to the question of what made his squad unique, he said, “The commitment.” When we must commit to each other defensively, we must also have a demanding mentality in order to prevail.
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