Two aspirant clubs, a pair of transformative managers, both aiming to crash the elite. Each admires the other, but it was Roberto De Zerbi who received a lesson from the greater wiles of Unai Emery, as a masterclass in centre-forward play from Ollie Watkins took a wrecking ball to Brighton.
Emery is a manager of meticulous research, often knowing his opponents perhaps even better than they do themselves. Time and again, his Aston Villa team picked at the weakness at the point of transition that is the soft underbelly of Brighton’s counterpressing machine. Gareth Southgate, watching the club he once captained, cannot have failed to be impressed by Watkins, with three goals and an assist.
