With Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp having departed the Premier League, there can now be little doubt that Unai Emery is the best manager in England’s top division. And by some distance.

Saturday will mark four years since Villa unveiled Emery as their head coach and few could have predicted the success that has followed. He has proved an inspired appointment who has continually embarrassed the “Big Six” clubs.

On every level, he has delivered: points per game, net spend, a distinguishable style of play, improving individual players, over-performance in the league and European competition.

Inevitably, he will be linked to Manchester United as a potential successor for Michael Carrick when he eventually departs as manager.

In recent years, many of Europe’s biggest clubs have considered whether Emery could be prised away from Villa Park. Yet he will never experience the control, structure and authority he enjoys at Villa and, frankly, why would he want to join a club with such a disjointed set-up as that of United?

He also has a relationship said to be “unbreakable” with Nassef Sawiris, Villa’s co-owner, who convinced him to join Villa during talks in Madrid four years ago.

Emery is feeling incredibly positive about the future and excited about the potential of his new team, known as Villa 2.0. They are joint-top of the Champions League table and face Manchester City this weekend unbeaten in three league matches.

There is nobody better placed to assess Emery’s influence than John McGinn, the club captain, who has been part of the Villa furniture since a £2m move from Hibernian in August 2018.

“It’s been four years of long meetings! I have loved every minute of it,” McGinn said. “It has been a long time, but he has the same hunger and desire that I saw in his first weeks at Villa. We are very lucky to have him, hopefully for at least another four years.

“He is right up there, but he doesn’t listen to that noise. He keeps wanting more and keeps wanting the best for us and for Villa. Long may that continue, until someone comes to try and nab him off us.”

This season is promising to be Emery’s masterpiece. Over the summer there were many doom merchants who predicted that this was the end of the road for the fairytale.

Six of the starting XI from May’s Europa League final win over Freiburg were sold as Villa battled to comply with strict financial regulations. Such rules could have broken many managers, but Emery has an ability to block out the noise.

He gets on with the job, focusing his energies on the training field and allowing his vast backroom team to take on all potential distractions. He has always operated with a policy of “no excuses” and expects the same from players and staff.

There is a sense that, perhaps, this is now Emery’s team. Last season he relied heavily on players signed during Dean Smith’s tenure. Yet this summer 10 signings arrived and the figures of Johan Manzambi, Nicolas Jackson, Zion Suzuki, Ibrahim Mbaye and Alysson epitomise this vibrant new team.

Villa knew that a summer of change was likely, so contingency plans were put in place earlier this year. They planned based on losing a player in every position, so scouted targets to prepare for that eventuality.

Emery worked closely with Roberto Olabe, Villa’s president of football operations, to rebuild a squad with a lower average age. He feels the current squad will allow him to tweak his formations and style of play for certain opponents.

It has not fully clicked yet, and there remain some concerns about the defence since Ezri Konsa’s exit for Arsenal, but there have been promising signs for the future.

McGinn said: “The manager is used to change and I am used to change. The club, unfortunately, is used to change, but that could be different in the next few years when we try to get to where we want to get to.

“It was about staying calm. We seem to be at our best when we float under the radar and everyone seems to forget about Villa. If we keep playing like this and keep adding players playing at their best and making the team a priority, we will be absolutely fine.”

The appointment of Emery in October 2022 was Villa’s turning point.

When Steven Gerrard was sacked, after a heavy defeat at Fulham, the club was outside the relegation zone on goal difference. Emery was the top target, with Mauricio Pochettino also very high up on the list.

The timing of the appointment was important. It would come a few weeks before the World Cup in Qatar and give the new head coach effectively a mini pre-season at a training camp in Dubai.

Sawiris met Emery and Damian Vidagany, Villa’s director of football operations, in the Spanish capital to hold talks. It was said that Sawiris was blown away by Emery’s vision and drive. He was a key player in negotiations.

Villa paid about £4.2m in compensation to Villarreal and it was Sawiris who pushed the boat out, agreeing to pay a “tier-one salary” to a coach who would work at a club outside the Premier League’s perceived “Big Six” and near the bottom three.

Sawiris was in attendance for Villa’s Champions League win over Viking FK on Wednesday and would have been reflecting on a job well done. Emery’s four years have been a magic carpet ride of memories, and there are more to come.