Almost from the moment Moussa Diaby and Ollie Watkins first shook hands during Aston Villa’s pre-season tour of the United States, a relationship blossomed.
The dynamic was immediate and validated why the club’s recruitment identified signing another wide forward in the summer.
Both started their careers as wingers but arrived in the Midlands to be fine-tuned. In Unai Emery, there had been thought about how to fit the pair together.
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“We were doing video analysis, individually and collectively with them as well as practising everything we are watching on the pitch,” said Emery. “For us, each match is training and a lot of information about how we can analyse and try to give a good answer to the work we build with them.”
Emery’s analysis sessions are becoming fabled lessons. They are often long yet detailed and, as a year of sustained progress demonstrates, tend to be profoundly beneficial. They are key in teaching the small nuances within the overall structure and players separately.
Watkins and Diaby worked as a double act in analysis rooms. When the fixture calendar is as busy as Villa’s, as Diaby’s speed is needing to be fine-tuned and his physical load managed carefully, what can be learned away from the pitch is invaluable.
“Moussa has developed really quickly,” said Matty Cash. “He has found his feet in the league really quick. Ollie has played in the league for a while now and he’s bang in form. We want to keep our players firing and keep the boys up front scoring.”
A front two is becoming an endangered species. The concept can be considered archaic — not in keeping with the technical trends of today where getting between the lines and building play from deep does not lend itself to two strikers standing up top.
But Diaby and Watkins can’t really be regarded as strikers, even if they do play up top. Villa’s attacking balance is predicated on varied movements, dropping into spaces before stretching defences.
As Diaby did in the second half against Luton Town, interchanging with Leon Bailey, they each spend periods in games out wide. They can also dart behind opposing central defenders. It all comes from the finer detail transmitted in those analysis sessions.
Emery’s swift transformation of Diaby — a winger for his previous side Bayer Leverkusen — into a second centre-forward has significantly elevated his stock. Two goals and an assist in his first three Premier League games showed a bonafide quality in his play and his end product matched his elite ball-carrying skills.
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Watkins, as Cash alludes to, has been a consistent performer for some time. Only Mohamed Salah (36) and Erling Haaland (35) have been directly involved in more goals than the England international (27) since Emery took charge a year ago.
Most pertinently, before Luton’s visit, Watkins and Diaby had created more chances — defined as the number of shots taken assisted by the other player — than any other duo in the Premier League this season (17). For broader context, it was six more chances than next best, Darwin Nunez and Salah.
The 3-1 victory against Luton was as routine as the adage goes, barring a consolation, self-inflicted own goal. Villa’s 12th straight home win carried an air of inevitability and Emery’s side never wholly exerted themselves, or needed to.
Still, the match presented Watkins and Diaby with different demands. Luton sat in a compact mid-block, not pressing but not sitting so deep it restricted space behind. This caused a congested midfield and the pockets of space the ‘front two’ would ordinarily pick up — peeling off the opposing central defenders — were stifled.
Inside the first 90 seconds, when Boubacar Kamara played the ball over the top, Villa’s solution was apparent — Diaby would run behind as often as he could, playing between Luton’s left wing-back Alfie Doughty and nearest centre-back, Teden Mengi.
Villa had 77 per cent possession in a first half hour that, ostensibly, passed Watkins by. Villa registered 14 shots in the first half and Watkins completed the same number of passes — the fewest of any Villa player. Strikingly, four of his 11 touches were inside the box, highlighting how little he was involved in Villa’s build-up.
But as Emery invariably says in response to any question about Watkins, the work he does off the ball aids Villa most effectively. He was more central than his strike partner, tasked with occupying defenders, dragging them out of position and freeing up space for Diaby and Nicolo Zaniolo.
This was illustrated expertly for Villa’s first chance, with Diaby again down the right side and crossing for Watkins, teeing up a volley for Zaniolo.
Villa’s average position map, of the players who started, shows how closely Zaniolo (22), Watkins (11) and Diaby (19) played together.
Diaby’s decoy run was deft for John McGinn’s goal, but neither he nor Watkins connected frequently. As an indication of how cautious and concentrated Luton were in stopping production lines, the Villa pair made just two passes between one another.
Yet, as tends to happen at home, Villa gradually capitalised on the chasing team leaving more space. This chimes with Villa’s strengths, enabled to be a more direct, transitional side, conducive to Watkins and Diaby’s pace.
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“I watched Villa live against West Ham,” said AZ Alkmaar’s coach Pascal Jansen before Thursday’s Conference League match. “Emery’s signature style is much clearer than it was at Arsenal. They have the counter-attack down to a science. They are actual masters.”
Villa have scored 16 goals in the second halves of matches this season, with Diaby’s goal four minutes after the break his first at Villa Park. The goal itself was forged from a pattern of play, combining in wide areas and studied on the training ground, which required Diaby and Watkins to stay in the box. The Holte End chanted Diaby’s name to the tune of Abba’s ‘Voulez-Vous’.
Fitting, perhaps, given the song’s melody is primarily sung by two people. Diaby is one half of a double act that continues to be central in Villa hitting the right notes.
(Top photo: by Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images)