Unai Emery has an unseen quality which sets him apart from Aston Villa rivals
After another tension packed Premier League weekend in which emotions have run high on both sides of the touch-line, Aston Villa can be thankful for the character of the man they have installed in their dugout.
There is so much at stake in almost every Premier League game, often impacting on how a campaign might unfold at either end of the table. The small percentage gains and losses can make a difference. As a manager, like Unai Emery, you can control the content of your daily training sessions and instil faith in your players to execute a match-day plan.
What cannot be accounted for, of course, is the human aspect of officiating. Nuno Espirito Santo was sent from the touch-line on Sunday for his reaction to Morgan Gibbs-White's red card against Brighton. Later that day, respective Manchester City and Arsenal managers Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta were both critical of referee Michael Oliver after their high profile clash at the Etihad Stadium, in which the Gunners finished with ten men.
Former Villa coach Roy Keane, a pundit for Sky Sports, spoke for many when he said on air about the Leandro Trossard dismissal for two cautions: "Wouldn't it be good if a manager came out after the game and said, 'Do you know what, he was a bit silly and it was a yellow card'. Every manager is coming out every week saying it wasn't a foul, it wasn't this.
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"Players... we've all done daft stuff on a football pitch, even Arteta there, so come out and show a bit of class and say, 'He gave the referee a chance to send him off'. I get he's going to come out and fight his corner, but every now and then - and I don't just mean Arteta because managers are coming out every week saying every decision is against them - take your medicine and show some class."
This isn't to say referees will always be blameless and mistakes won't be made by those out in the middle or by those drawing lines on VAR duty, yet Emery at Villa never seems to feel a need to dig out the officials post match, irrespective of how events have played out. Indeed, when he is disciplined - as he was against Wolves on Saturday - very often he will, as Keane puts it, take his medicine.
The same can be said for the Villa players. At Brentford last season, Emery was critical only of his own players who engaged in an ugly and unnecessary tussle after, as Emery described it, a provocation. Rather than demand action from the official that day, or bemoan Boubacar Kamara's late red card for his role in the scenes, Emery simply concluded that he expected his players to behave better.
"Of course, our behaviour is being fantastic, but today maybe not good," Emery said after the game, back in December. "I want to explain to the players how we can react when we are under pressure in some circumstances. There was provocation from them."
Indeed, Emery was booked that day, but that was for entering the field of play to act as peacemaker having sensed Emiliano Martinez might be about to get himself into trouble. Admittedly his record isn't spotless - his booking on Saturday came through frustration as Wolves took their time over making a substitution and, as he conceded himself, it coming at a time when his side were performing poorly and trailing.
Nevertheless, Emery has moved to defend officials previously. In February, he lifted the lid on one of his touch-line bugbears involving fourth officials - not the officials themselves, but opposing managers who spend each and every game remonstrating with them, pestering them and contesting every on-field decision.
“I believe in every referee and sometimes I am a little bit upset when some coaches are speaking with the fourth referee all the time in 90 minutes," Emery explained before Villa went to Sheffield United. “I don’t know what the conversation is that they can have! They get a lot of time speaking with the fourth referee.
"First, I think it’s a waste of time and then maybe are they pushing him, I don’t know? I don’t like to do it, I never do it, I respect always the referees and I try to respect even when they are not really being successful with some decisions against us. Of course, I respect a lot VAR."
Emery mightn't always toe the line, but rarely - if at all - will you hear the Villa boss choosing to lay blame at the door of anyone other than himself or his players for their failure to win - and that's a refreshing stance, especially when you consider the company he's keeping at the top end of the Premier League.