Douglas Luiz delights Aston Villa boss Unai Emery
Unai Emery believes Douglas Luiz is hitting new heights at Villa after hailing the midfielder’s performance against Bournemouth as the best of his reign to date.
Luiz set Villa on their way to a 3-0 win over the Cherries by netting his third Premier League goal of the season and also had a hand in setting up later strikes from Jacob Ramsey and Emi Buendia.
The Brazilian is enjoying his most consistent form since joining Villa from Manchester City in 2019 and Emery views him as a vital part of his rapidly improving team.
He said: “I am very happy with Douglas Luiz. His skill, characteristic in the squad is very important.
“Every match he is very focused on how we can manage 90 minutes, keeping possession, keeping good positioning.
“He’s important in terms of taking our time with our centre-backs and midfielders and his characteristic is necessary in this team.
“Saturday was the match, I think, overall, his performance was the best with us since I arrived here.”
Villa remain 11th in the table but are back to within four points of sixth-placed Liverpool and Emery said: “I am happy with one thing: maybe we can now feel completely safe from the bottom teams.
“That is the first thing. When I arrived here we were struggling more at the bottom.
“Now we can add a new objective and step to get at the teams in the top-10 now.”
