Two questions sprang to mind on a night of contrasting fortunes for Premier League clubs in the Champions League.

First, why have Manchester United never made a concerted attempt to bring in Unai Emery as manager? And even if they did, why on Earth would the Aston Villa boss choose to move to Old Trafford right now?

Emery is approaching his fourth anniversary in charge at Villa Park. He took over with the club on the fringes of a relegation battle and since then, he has led them to Champions League qualification twice, as well as lifting the Europa League last season.

Not long after United had fallen apart at Como, Emery was guiding Villa to their third straight victory in the season’s Champions League. 

Ross Barkley’s header and Emi Buendia’s penalty made it 2-0 at half-time, and the excellent Alysson’s cross flew in off Henrik Heggheim for the third goal. Peter Christiansen replied late on for Viking.

Villa are joint-top of the league phase with a maximum nine points, which was good enough to reach the play-off round in some cases last term. There are 15 points still to play for.

While United have moved from one baffling appointment to another, sacking Erik ten Hag to hire Ruben Amorim and then replacing the Portuguese with Michael Carrick, Emery has been right under their noses. 

But they never made a serious bid to poach the Premier League’s best pound-for-pound manager and if that boat has now sailed, it would serve them right.

Aston Villa’s Alex Ferguson

In terms of the control he has, Emery is the closest there is to Ferguson in the modern Premier League.

Few managers’ influence stretches across a club as Emery’s does and just like Ferguson, Emery is showing he is comfortable with dismantling a successful team and rebuilding it.

Villa lost six players who started last season’s Europa League final and their prospects were uncertain. When Emery’s men were hammered at Brighton on the opening day of the season, it seemed they may have changed too much too soon.

Not a bit of it. There will still be bumps in the road, but already Johan Manzambi – absent here – looks one of the signings of the summer, as does Nicolas Jackson.

Ibrahim Mbaye will only improve, Joao Gomes is growing into his role and now Leon Goretzka is fully fit, he will surely have a significant contribution to make, while Alysson is coming to the boil nicely. Zion Suzuki looks an ideal replacement for Emi Martinez in goal.

There are still some doubts about the defence in Ezri Konsa’s absence but Villa’s attacking options are the envy of most across Europe.

Underestimated Emery

Despite winning 12 major trophies, Emery still does not receive the recognition he deserves in some quarters.

According to one live blog, BBC summariser and former England defender Matthew Upson described Emery as ‘a safe pair of hands for any club’. 

Safe pair of hands? Seriously? With all respect, we are talking about one of the world’s great managers, not someone hired to steer a relegation-threatened side to mid-table.

Emery has coached some of the world’s best players and even improved them. Working under Emery, Youri Tielemans was one of the league’s best midfielders last season. Just look at him now as he struggles under a vastly inferior coach at United.

Emery is comfortably the best-paid employee at Villa. His annual salary of about £15million puts him in the top bracket of world managers and they think him worth every penny.

The odd man out

Alejandro Garnacho continues to have a confusing time at Villa Park. The former United winger, on loan from Chelsea, was a late substitute here and looked lively. 

He has yet to start a game though and doubts remain about how much Villa really want him.

The Argentine may start in the Carabao Cup at Bournemouth next week but barring an unexpected series of events, it seems unlikely his £43m permanent move will be triggered. January promises to be interesting for him.