Unai Emery's reign at Aston Villa got off to the perfect start on Sunday afternoon as his new side dispatched Manchester United at Villa Park.

It was a lightning-fast start from the Villans as the revitalised Leon Bailey fired the home side ahead from Jacob Ramsey's pass, before Lucas Digne curled in a delightful free-kick to make it 2-0 with just 12 minutes on the clock.

Erik ten Hag's side threatened a comeback when Luke Shaw's strike from outside the area flew into Emiliano Martinez's top corner thanks to a huge deflection off Ramsey, but Emery's side re-established their two-goal lead early in the second half, as Ramsey smashed home Ollie Watkins' cutback.

While Ramsey was involved in nearly everything during the 90 minutes, a lot of credit must go to Tyrone Mings, who produced one of the best displays of his season so far, after coming under a lot of criticism earlier in the season.

As per SofaScore, the England international would earn a strong 6.9/10 rating for his performance on Sunday, with only Ramsey, Bailey and Digne rated higher from the Villa side.

During the 90 minutes, Mings completely nullified the threat of Cristiano Ronaldo, as the legendary forward would earn a poor 6.3/10 rating for his display after managing just one shot on target, while he also picked up a booking after a tussle with the former Bournemouth centre-back.

The 29-year-old would also contribute a mammoth eight clearances, two interceptions and one block during the game, all of which were more than his season average of 1.3 clearances, 0.5 interceptions and 0.3 blocks per game, which emphasises just how much he raised his game in Emery's first game in charge.

He was also solid with his passing, registering 61 touches and completing 90% of his passes, which again is an improvement on his season average of 83.1%.

Steven Gerrard was full of praise for the defender earlier in the season, describing him as "dominant" and that proved the case once again on Sunday, with the centre-back setting the tone for what will hopefully be some much better performances under Emery. Indeed, the defender has already become his first hero and should now be able to look forward to a more vibrant spell under the new coach.