media.
“I’m going to see what’s best for my future,” Emery said. “I’m very focused for Sunday (and Guingamp) and the final of the French Cup, after which I will see.”
Asked if he would give advice to his successor, Emery said: Of course, if he needs something, I can help and give him my opinion. I can help if needed.”
It has all served to set up one of the Premier League’s standout performances of recent years, in the way Villa simply obliterated Manchester City on Wednesday. The 1-0 scoreline didn’t do them justice. The European champions no didn’t deserve anything out of the game. They created nothing, because they could barely get on the ball. It is not an exaggeration to say that just isn’t done to a Pep Guardiola side. It’s hard to even think of similar games. You probably have to go back to Guardiola’s first months in England, when both Everton and Leicester City each put four past a nascent Guardiola team. That was a side still learning his way, though, and those oppositions really just hit the glass jaw of the City at the time, rather than smashing them to pieces in the way Villa did.
The significance of this went beyond even a win over the champions, though.
It was one of those transformative performances for a team and a manager, that changes the way teams think about them. Some around City likened it to when Liverpool put it up to the eventual champions in the 2013-14 season, which brought a realisation Brendan Rodgers’s team were more than just a growing side. They were proper challengers.
