Fearless Aston Villa will attack Unai Emery’s Champions League ‘dream’: View

Few managers – if any – in world football could have replicated the job Unai Emery has performed at Aston Villa over the past 21 months.

He returned to the Premier League in November 2022 with a point to prove and he has done just that, averaging nearly two points per game in the 63 league matches he has taken charge of at Villa. Emery’s win ratio of 54 per cent is the highest of any manager in Villa’s history.

Winning 15 of 25 league matches in 2022/23 propelled the club back into Europe and laid the foundations to then qualify for Champions League football last season. Only Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal have claimed more points than Villa since Emery’s first game in charge in 2022, showing the level of consistency Villa have found.

Until late January, Villa hadn’t lost at home in the league in nearly 12 months after going 17 matches unbeaten at Villa Park under Emery, winning 16 of them. The most impressive of those victories came in the space of days as Villa beat Man City and Arsenal by a goal to nil inside 72 hours.

The win over City was probably the best performance I’ve seen from Villa live, and make no mistake, they made the Premier League and then European champions look very ordinary at Villa Park. So much so, Pep Guardiola admitted Villa were genuine title contenders at that point in the season.

Rico Lewis had nowhere to hide from John McGinn, Phil Foden no chance of beating Ezri Konsa and Erling Haaland was in Diego Carlos’ shadow. In fact, after the Norwegian called Emi Martinez into action in the 11th minute of the game, City recorded an expected goals value of zero.

The 1-0 scoreline flattered City, who faced 22 shots from Villa in total. Only one went in, but they deserved that slice of fortune when Leon Bailey’s effort took a deflection off Ruben Dias. City made two chances all game, which came seconds apart; the fewest ever by a Pep Guardiola team in a game within Europe’s big-five leagues, with that game being his 535th. The 22 shots from Villa was the joint-most faced by a Guardiola side in the same period, while Villa won possession in the final third 13 times, which is the most ever by an opposition team against City in a Premier League game under the Spaniard.

Emery’s Villa completely dominated City across the pitch, but had to show a different side to their game to go again three days later to set a new club record of 15 successive home league wins by beating
the Gunners.

Only in 1980-81, when they last won the title, had Villa ever had more than their tally of 35 points after 16 top-flight games in a season. Villa were running on empty in the final months of the season with some players playing through pain and others sidelined through injuries they had to nurse, meaning they fell away from Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool at the top of the table.

It was Villa’s second win over Arsenal in what was Emery’s first league game at the Emirates since he left the Gunners which all but sealed his side’s place in the Champions League. It was Arsenal’s first Premier League defeat since New Year’s Eve against Fulham after they had won 10 of their last 11 Premier League games, scoring at least twice in each victory, going into their clash with Villa.

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal had also conceded just four goals across those 11 games, taking 31 points out of a possible 33 and only dropping points in a 0-0 draw at Manchester City back in March. They had also kept 14 Premier League clean sheets this season, at least five more than any other club. It was a monumental victory.

Emery’s players aren’t fazed by any opponent and no doubt feel fearless after a couple of hours in the meeting room, where he gives his players all the tools and information they need to get a result if they can carry out his game plan.

“Then to fight with the best teams in the Premier League, each year, like Manchester City, Liverpool, now Arsenal, two years ago Chelsea, three years ago Tottenham – they weren’t, so long ago, in the final of the Champions League. They’re some of the best teams in the world – they want to win the Premier League and then they want to win in Europe. Our level, now, is not enough to fight for the Premier League – but of course, I want to increase our level.

“I want to increase our structure and our possibilities economically, to get more money to be closer to where the other teams are, who are fighting for the Premier League. I am realistic but ambitious and sometimes it’s difficult to be both. Sometimes you have to break something – like here, with Leicester, who won the Premier League – but I want to be consistent.