Unai Emery is doing it again. Aston Villa have won four of the last five in all competitions and look set for another good season despite losing so many star players in the summer.

Johan Manzanbi, who almost joined Newcastle, headed the winner to lift Villa up to 12th in the table. Newcastle are above them on goals scored but, on this evidence, their rebuild could take longer than Villa’s.

73 min “I could never really decide about Nichlas Jackson at Chelsea - he seemed to get into good positions a lot, with limited end product and a propensity to pick up daft cards,” writes Benjamin Gravestock. “Am increasingly convinced he might actually be the real deal, though. Biggest compliment to him is that we aren’t really missing Ollie Watkins.

“I was among those who thought that Emi Martinez’ time to move on was probably right, even last year; I was hoping for James Trafford, but am extremely happy the club secured Suzuki. Whisper it, but both Jackson and Suzuki might actually be upgrades…”

Jackson could be more ruthless, I guess, but his movement and link play are superb. And you’d imagine that, like Watkins, he’ll only improve under Emery.

47 min “Evening Rob,” writes Simon McMahon. “In another convoluted attempt to shoehorn Dundee United into the Guardian liveblog, daughter Evie and partner Ryan are in Seville tonight, watching Real Betis play Barcelona in La Liga. 2-1 to Barca at half time, Lamine Yamal and Rodri on the scoresheet. Maybe Betis should bring on John Clark and Iain Ferguson at the break, I’ve no doubt Evie will be lecturing the locals on United’s record v Barcelona in Europe, not least to deflect from the current side’s failure to beat St. Johnstone in Perth today...”

“Hmmm, not great watching from an Matthias Jaissle fan club perspective,” writes Chris Paraskevas. “Joelinton hasn’t had the desired effect of shoring up our midfield, which is frequently wide open while trying to play a bizarrely high line against Nicolas Jackson, who thrives off playing off the shoulder.

“The interesting thing is that there are genuine options on the bench: Dedic, Steur, Osula, Toure, Burn and Murphy can all possess their own unique qualities.

“A big issue for MJ is that no-one out there looks like a bona-fide match winner in the Bruno G, Athony G or The Other Bloke mould: the scaling back on proven quality has been sudden and substantial.

“So, it hasn’t quite turned out as it said it would in the brochure, but simultaneously... it’s not as if MJ is inhereting a poor squad.

“Big, big second half coming up.”