Analysis: Unai Emery's man-management masterclass has Aston Villa soaring

Tough because the Villa manager faces a thrice weekly headache over who to select in his starting XI. Easy because whichever combination he chooses, the team delivers.

Saturday’s 4-1 thrashing of Newcastle was Villa’s 10th win in their last 11 matches and their best performance of the season so far, in a fixture Emery had declared their biggest and most important of the campaign.

At the point in the year when rivals are beginning to feel the pace, Villa are powering toward the finish line. 

Newcastle, who arrived seeking a seventh straight win in all competitions, might have been playing for the third time in six days. But this was Villa’s seventh match in 21, each of them significant. By the finish, the scoreline flattered the Magpies, as a home team which only four days earlier had suffered a heartbreaking exit from the Champions League once more rose to the occasion.

All four goals demonstrated the depth of a squad rapidly becoming the envy of every other manager in the top-flight. 

Ollie Watkins took out his frustration at not starting against Paris Saint-Germain by firing Emery’s men ahead after 33 seconds, at the same moment equalling Gabriel Agbonlahor’s club record for Premier League goals.