When Unai Emery was appointed as Aston Villa’s head coach 12 months ago, the consensus from outside was that he’d propel the club up the Premier League table, but just how his side have achieved that corrects a false perception of the Spaniard’s brand of football.

At the time of Emery’s return to Premier League management, Villa fans were warned about an ‘over pragmatic’ or ‘attritional’ style which Emery had apparently deployed at Arsenal and PSG. But at Villa, doubters of Emery’s ability to get results while playing entertaining football have been proven badly wrong.

This is the consequence of trusting Emery, a coach who has overseen nothing but success when he is afforded power to shape his own culture within a club. Villa have supplied him with all the tools for the job and he has repaid that trust and then some.

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His side have scored 17 goals in their first four home league matches this season, a figure bettered only by Manchester City in Premier League history. A win over Luton Town this weekend would extend Villa’s league winning run at home to 12 games, while in their previous 11 wins, they have scored 31 goals and conceded just five in those victories.

Their tally of 19 points is their highest after nine games of a Premier League campaign for 25 years and in the 15 games they have played in all competitions, Emery’s side have scored 41 goals. Villa supporters have been spoiled.

This weekend, Villa are aiming to win more than six of their opening 10 matches in a top-flight season for the first time since claiming seven victories in 1951-52. There’s every chance they’ll continue their fine form in front of goal having scored three goals or more in each of their opening four home league matches of a season for the first time since 1920, while Luton are the first Premier League debutant to fail to keep a clean sheet in their opening nine matches in the competition since Bolton in 1995.

To put Villa’s remarkable attacking proficiencies into context, they’ve scored more than half of the amount of goals they managed across 13 whole Premier League campaigns, and just four fewer than in 2015/16.

Emery is one of the best tacticians in Europe and he has built a stable structure in the space of months, which allows Villa to build-up effectively. This gives the attackers their best chance to thrive. Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby can both link play well, while John McGinn and Douglas Luiz are both excellent in progressing possession. Full-backs Lucas Digne and Matty Cash have enjoyed the licence to make up the numbers in attack and play as wingers.

Front and centre to Villa’s attack is Watkins, who has registered 14 goal contributions in 15 appearances in all competitions so far this season and it would be an understatement to say his game has been elevated under Emery. The 27-year-old became the first player to have at least five goals and five assists in the Premier League this season after scoring and assisting in the 4-1 win over West Ham last weekend.

Emery has transformed Villa inside his first year at the club, but there’s no telling how far they can go under the Spaniard.