Edwards knew 'excellent' Villa would challenge this season after Lazio scouting report

Hatters boss Rob Edwards knew his former side Aston Villa would be one of the major players in the Premier League this term after receiving a scouting report from a 3-0 pre-season friendly victory over Lazio.

Back in early August, Unai Emery’s team defeated the Serie A opposition 3-0 at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium, with Ollie Watkins, John McGinn and a Mario Gila own goal enough for the hosts to secure victory. A 5-1 defeat to Newcastle United on the opening day of the campaign was quickly to prove a one-off, Villa only losing three more league games before the turn of the year, climbing into a top four position, as they handed Manchester City one of just top flight three defeats they have suffered, beating them 1-0 in front of the watching Edwards.

When 2024 came around, the Villains had their first sticky spell, with just one victory from six in all competitions, but they have rectified that in the last two games, beating Fulham 2-1 away and Nottingham Forest 4-2 on home soil last weekend, to sit fourth, five points above Spurs, albeit having played a game more. It was where Edwards, who played nine times for the club after coming through the ranks back in 2002, always thought they might be from that match in the summer, saying: “They’re excellent, they’re really really good.

"Richie (Kyle, assistant) and Trolls (Paul Trollope) went to watch them in pre-season against Lazio. I remember on the way back them phoning me in the car, they said, ‘they’re good, they’re very good!’ And they are, and they have been, so it’s going to be a very, very difficult game for us. They’re brilliantly coached with really good individual players.

"Douglas Luiz is so good, (John) McGinn, (Youri) Tielemans and (Jacob) Ramsey are playing really well in those pockets and (Ollie) Watkins is right up there in the league. They’ve got a pretty good goalkeeper (Emiliano Martinez) as well, so all over the place, top players but this is what we wanted, this is it and I’m looking forward to it, I really am. I think it's a clear game there for us, slightly different to (Manchester) City and Liverpool where there was a lot more chaos going on, so we’ll see.

“They’ve got a brilliant way of playing, that high line they play teams can find it difficult to break them down. They’re extremely good out of possession, and are happy to sometimes go okay, you have the ball for a little bit and they can get six at the back. It’s difficult to get behind them or around them, but then when they win it back, they can spring from there and have got real top players in transition, counter-attacking as well as being able to control the game.

"So they’re difficult and again as always we’ll have a good plan, the best way we feels suits us to try and hurt them, but they’re right up there in the league at the moment. Their form has been good all season long, I watched them live against Man City and it’s probably the best performance I’ve seen apart from the one I saw in midweek against us. I thought they were brilliant that night, they’re so well coached, brilliant individuals, so it’s another big, big challenge for us and we’ve had a lot of them recently.”

Former Brentford striker Watkins had been one of the star players in the top flight this term, with 14 goals so far, netting 19 in all competitions this term, and also managing 10 assists as well, the joint highest with Pascal Gross and Kieran Trippier. Tipped to be in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the Euros in the summer, Edwards continued: “Ollie Watkins is having a fantastic season. He seems to be getting better and better with age and in terms of English strikers, he’s right up there with the best in the Premier League. There’s not much he can’t do, scoring goals, linking it, he runs in behind, holds it up, he presses well, he’s looking like the complete striker.”

Town weren’t much of a match for their opponents when they headed to Villa Park earlier in the season, beaten 3-1 on the day, as they only had a late Martinez own goal to show for their efforts. However, having grown into the top flight now and looking far more at home, meaning Edwards knows it will be a different challenge for the visitors when the action starts at 5.30pm today, saying: “They’ll look to try and take control, but they’re also try and get in behind you at the earliest opportunity if they can and that happened to us too many times at their place.

"That will be an area that we know and they were still very good at it the other day when we watched them live against Forest. A really good team who can play a number of different ways, but I always say it, Kenilworth Road is a slightly different game anyway. We are a different team playing a different way from that game, so I think there’ll be a lot of differences from the game at Villa Park.”