It’s a long road ahead, but there’s a real possibility Villa rejoins the promise land again. Aston Villa have been completely rejuvenated under new manager Unai Emery as the Spainard has taken Villa all the way from the bottom of the Premier League to the brink of European qualification.
I really can’t believe this Aston Villa team, which achieved an average league position of 15th (14th in 2021/22, 15th in 2022/23) and had a 0.316% winning percentage under former manager Steven Gerrard, is on the verge of earning a spot in the Top-7 and the European football qualifications that comes along with such a high standing. And it’s really all down to Unai Emery.
I understand that either Mikel Arteta (if Arsenal wins the Premier League) or Eddie Howe (if Newcastle finish within the Top-4 and Arsenal don’t win the title) will probably win the Manager of the Year award as their, respective, achievement with their teams have been sensational, but Unai Emery really deserves a shoutout too.
Like I said, Aston Villa was wallowing in 15th place as they not only couldn’t score a goal (they only scored 7 goals prior to Gerrards’ October 20th sacking) under Gerrard, but also key players, such as captain Tyrone Mings, Douglas Luiz, and Ollie Watkins, were either on the verge of leaving the club or were on the peripheral due to falling outs with Gerrard.
Simply put, Villa was looking at a bottom half finish in the Premier League, if not relegation into the Championship if the right manager wasn’t at the helm.
However, thankfully for all Villa fans, the Aston Villa ownership group of Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris made the best possible managerial decision ever by snatching Unai Emery out of Villareal and signing him to a 4-year contact. Why was this such a great move?
Well, for everyone who hasn’t been following Villa since November 1st (the day Emery was officially signed), the Villans have won 11 games, drawn 2 games, and have only lost 3 games in the 16 games Emery has been the manager of the club, while Villa has risen from 16th place in the Premier League (where they sat on November 1st) to 6th place (where they sit today) with only 8 games left in the Premier League season.
Under Emery, Ollie Watkins has been revitalized as he sits 7th in the Premier League goal-scoring charts with 12 goals, Douglas Luiz and Watkins both have 5 assists (19th best in the league), goalkeeper Emi Martinez sits 6th best in the league with 9 clean sheets (which is shared by the Villa defense), and Tyrone Mings sits 9th best in the Premier League with 113 clearances and Ezri Konsa sits 18th with 95 clearances.
Clearly, Unai Emery has gotten the best out of this team as they actually look like a side that can compete with the best of Europe.
But, to finally get to the all-important question: will Aston Villa actually qualify for European Football? Well…I think so.
I’m still not sure if it will be the Europa League (which is obviously preferred) or the Europa Conference League as even though Villa (30 games played) sits in 6th place with 47 PTS, Europe-qualifier rivals Brighton (28 games played) and Liverpool (29 games played) have more games on hand over Villa.
Still, both Brighton and Liverpool have failed to win more than two of their last five games (Brighton: 2-2-1; Liverpool: 1-2-2), while Aston Villa have won six of their last seven games. So, if we’re judging by each team’s form, then I’d easily pip Aston Villa for the 6th spot.
However, since we obviously don’t, I just feel Villa will fall to the 7th place as Liverpool and Brighton have those games in hand over them.
Nevertheless, this will certainly be Villa’s best season since 2009/10 season…which also happened to be the last time they played in Europe.
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