The Aston Villa Glow Up That Makes Mockery of Early Doubters

Aston Villa have made a habit of silencing their critics under Unai Emery in recent seasons.

The Spanish manager has guided the Villans to Champions League football and has even made sure the club have been competitive at the top end of the competition.

Of course, we know Emery is a European football master with four Europa League winners medals in his trophy cabinet as well as a runners up gong to his name.

Last season Villa finished inside the automatic qualification spots for the knockout phase of the Champions League before going all the way to the quarter-finals only to narrowly lose 5-4 on aggregate to eventual victors Paris Saint-Germain. So we know European football is no sweat to the club who this season sit on nine points from four games in their Europa League campaign.

But what about in domestic action? Emery and his squad of lads have had an up and down season in the Premier League so far while their Carabao Cup campaign went down like a lead balloon as they were knocked out by Brentford at the first time of asking in the third round on penalty kicks.

That was back in September, though, and the club from Birmingham have come on leaps and bounds since then. So we at FootballBlog wanted to have a look at where things all changed for Villa this term as they had started so poorly that the critics had their knives out and sharpened.

Early season form

The Villans started their season miserably and had only picked up three points from a possible 15 from their opening five fixtures. They were in the middle of a barren run in front of goal, too, with only one goal in those five either side of a Europa League victory over Bologna that Villa wanted to build from.

In that timeframe, Villa were missing key players through injury with creative midfielder Youri Tielemans out of action while Boubacar Kamara and Ross Barkley had both also been sidelined.

The club sat 18th in the Premier League division at the time and that had some fans and pundits worried that the feelgood factor once cultivated by the manager and his staff had come to an end. There were also off-field issues for the club to deal with at the time of their bad form with Monchi leaving Villa as president of operations.

That had also sent punters reeling about the possibility of losing Emery but that was put to bed by reports which insisted the manager would be going nowhere.

From there, things drastically improved.

Criticism over results and performances

Manager Emery himself was the squad’s biggest critic early in the campaign and it was clear to see why. The 54-year-old had watched his players toil in matches domestically and that was, really, even before any of the big guns had taken on his team with defeats to Brentford and Crystal Palace as well as draws against 10-man Newcastle United, Everton and Sunderland.

He branded his players “lazy” after their 1-1 draw with the Black Cats back in September. Emery said: “‘We are not playing like I want. We have to adapt some new players in the structure, and we will need time with them. Others know we want to control the game with the ball.

“We were lazy sometimes defensively. Lazy. For example, the goal we conceded, we were lazy. Maybe it’s because we didn’t play in our style. We have experiences in three years, and how we felt confidence through it. Then, we can get better chances to dribble and be close to scoring.

“[Ollie] Watkins is not having chances to score, but he had the last one. Maybe if he scored, it would have been the click to change everything, but we have to continue work to try to look for it.

“Some attitude in some moments, usually the players have attitude. But sometimes because maybe they are a bit upset or not feeling good, they are not fighting. It is not something I can tell them like a punishment.

“Collectively we have to try and understand and feel better. Sunderland at home in this stadium are playing so motivated. Even playing with one less player, they were feeling strong.”

Some journalists also pointed the finger at Villa for their early performances including one at the Guardian who could hardly believe it was the same team from the year previous.

Ollie Watkins firing blanks?

As Emery mentioned himself, Watkins had not been firing on all cylinders as the England international had previously done. Even now the marksman has scored just once in all competitions in 17 performances which begs the ultimate question: What is happening?

The 29-year-old has struggled with form and Watkins’ dip in class can perhaps be put down to a few factors, as we at FootballBlog analysed earlier this morning.

Villa’s early lack of chances created hindered the prolific goal scorer while he had been suffering with a supposed injury which would likely have prevented him from being at his best.

There can be no excuses right now, however, but the forward is still finding it difficult and he has the likes of Evann Guessand and natural winger in Donyell Malen breathing down his neck.

Upturn in fortunes amid strong run

In recent months, Villa have made a bit of a mockery of those who had initially doubted their chances of improving and they have done so in rapid fashion.

As mentioned, the club were sitting all the way down in 18th before they won their first match of the season but all it seemed to take was three points in Europe vs Bologna of Serie A to bring them back to life and inject some positivity into the stadium, squad and fanbase.

Since that evening at Villa Park, the club have picked up 18 points from a possible 21 with only Arne Slot’s struggling Liverpool managing to win at Anfield in a 2-0 victory. Villa have beaten Tottenham on their own patch as well as Manchester City at home in that time.

They, in seven matches, have scored an impressive 14 goals and shipped just four in the EPL. That also does not include their efforts in the Europa League where they’ve picked up three wins from four and only lost to Go Ahead Eagles in what was a bit of a shock 2-0 loss in the Netherlands.

Villa’s upturn in quality has been clear and they have moved into fourth in the Premier League table which is a dramatic improvement.

And if they can keep things going as they are right now, Champions League football will almost certainly be on the cards for next year, too. That is through their domestic action, there’s nothing to say they can’t win the Europa League and do it that way…