What Sir Alex Ferguson said about Aston Villa after 5-1 defeat v Newcastle | OneFootball

Aston Villa find themselves third in the Premier League table following an impressive 1-0 victory over treble-winners Manchester City on December 6. Unai Emery’s side outplayed their revered opponents at Villa Park and thoroughly deserved all three points.

Leon Bailey scored the only goal of the game in the 74th minute, picking the ball up near the halfway line before shooting from the edge of the box. While the ball took a fortuitous deflection off Ruben Dias before finding its way past Ederson, there was nothing lucky about the result, as the full-time stats prove.

Every Premier League manager's wages

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Aston Villa 1-0 Man City - Match stats

Stats show Unai Emery's side dominated Pep Guardiola's men at Villa Park

This victory was Villa’s 14th consecutive win at home, which meant they’d equalled a record stretching back to 1932. It was also Emery’s first victory over Pep Guardiola at the 14th time of asking. The Spanish coach, taking charge of Villa for the 50th time, has transformed the club’s fortunes since replacing Steven Gerrard in October 2022.

Guardiola: Aston Villa are in the title race

Pep believes Emery's team could become champions

Asked if Villa are in the title race, Guardiola was quoted by Birmingham Live’s Aston Villa correspondent John Townley as saying: "Yes, definitely. For the way they are playing, their physicality, their speed, the bench, Unai Emery, their mid-block, set-pieces. Definitely." After the opening 15 matches of the 2023-24 campaign, Villa now find themselves two points clear of fourth-placed Man City in the Premier League table.

Only second-placed Liverpool (34 points) and leaders Arsenal (36 points) sit above Villa, who are exceeding expectations despite a shocking start to the season which saw them travel to Newcastle on August 12 and suffer a humbling 5-1 defeat at St. James’ Park. Moussa Diaby equalised against the Magpies in the 11th minute after Sandro Tonali had given the hosts an early lead, but further goals from Alexander Isak (2), Callum Wilson and Harvey Barnes made it a miserable and concerning opening weekend for Emery, his players and the club’s supporters.

Two days later, on the Monday night, the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson was asked which team had impressed him most from the opening weekend ahead of Manchester United’s clash against Wolves. His answer took everybody by complete surprise.

Manchester City had beaten Burnley 3-0 away from home, Arsenal had defeated Nottingham Forest 2-1, Brighton had recorded a convincing 4-1 victory over Luton Town, and Chelsea had drawn at home with Liverpool, but it was Villa - the team that had just been hammered 5-1 by Newcastle - that somehow managed to impress Fergie the most.

Ferguson: Aston Villa impressed me during 5-1 defeat

Sir Alex's comments raised eyebrows in August

The 81-year-old Scot, winner of 38 trophies during his glittering 26-year spell as Man Utd manager, told NBC Sports: "To be honest with you, I watched Aston Villa and I can't believe the scoreline. Honestly Aston Villa played fantastic football and just lost to bad goals.

"Newcastle are going to be very difficult to beat, in their own ground in particular, and their manager has done a great job there. It's a surprising game, football. You can play teams off the pitch and not score - that's what Aston Villa did." Watch the clip below:

Some football fans were mocking Ferguson on social media for his eyebrow-raising comments back in August, but they’re certainly not laughing now. He might be in his early 80s now and retired for 10 years, but the 11-time Premier League Manager of the Season clearly still possesses a football brain that is unrivalled by the vast majority.