How Aston Villa Can Build Upon Bologna Win After First Victory of Season

Aston Villa must take advantage of the feelgood factor from their first win of the season last night over Bologna in the Europa League.

Unai Emery’s side have had a poor start to their season and sit 18th in the Premier League table with just three points from a possible 15 after five matches.

It has been slow for the Villans so far who recently lost their President of Football Operations Monchi after the Spaniard opted to leave the club.

Emery, though, has a terrific record in European football having won the Europa League four times with Sevilla and Villarreal respectively while he finished runner up in 2019 with Arsenal.

Victory last night over Serie A side Bologna brought a much needed confidence booster for the Birmingham-based outfit and now Emery and his squad will be desperate to build momentum.

Aston Villa form makes for grim reading this season

It will be necessary for the club moving forward this season, albeit there remains only four points between 18th and the top 10.

Yet Villa fans will know how quickly things can change and one win could be all it takes to get back to strong form.

Looking ahead, the club are playing their next two domestic matches in front of a home crowd against Fulham initially and then fellow strugglers Burnley afterwards.

There is, of course, the opportunity to put six points on the board from those two clashes to drag themselves up the division.

Marco Silva’s Fulham have started well with eight points and they sit eighth and well above their opponents. So victory for Villa on that outing is absolutely no guarantee.

They are then back in Europa League action away to Feyenoord in the Netherlands which is another opportunity to pick up a win on the road to continue their momentum push.

How Aston Villa improved vs Bologna and can build momentum

Burnley – who sit in 16th and just one point ahead of Villa – make the trip to Villa Park after that and Scott Parker’s side present Emery and co. with a great opportunity to win at home.

Regardless of coming results, Emery is in no danger of losing his job at Villa and that is even despite Monchi leaving the club.

Meanwhile it has been confirmed that Roberto Olabe has taken over the helm as sporting director and that presents its own fresh challenge for the club to work around.

Business will be going on behind the scenes for the next transfer window in January following what was a disappointing one for supporters this summer.

Olabe – who counts Martin Zubimendi, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino among his success stories – will have his work cut out.