Why Aston Villa are a club transformed – and how good could it get?
Unai Emery has always a manager who dreams big.
“My dream is to win the Champions League,” he told Aston Villa fans after guiding them back into Europe in 2023. The notion of Villa helping him achieve that would have, then, been almost laughable.
Now, after his side beat third-placed Nottingham Forest 2-1 in the Premier League for a seventh consecutive win in all competitions, the Spanish manager has got the whole club dreaming big with him.
The victory moves Aston Villa level on เล่นบาคาร่า UFABET เว็บตรง ค่าคอมสูง points with fifth-placed Manchester City and in with a chance of qualifying for the Champions League – via their league position – for the second successive season.
They also have a Champions League quarter-final to look forward to against Ligue 1 champions Paris St-Germain on Wednesday, and are in the FA Cup semi-finals against Crystal Palace.
Back in October 2022, Emery replaced Steven Gerrard as manager, with Villa only out of the Premier League relegation zone on goal difference.
Now, as well as still challenging in Europe. They are just two wins from a first major domestic trophy for 29 years and their first FA Cup since 1957.
But just how good has Emery’s two-year reign been? What has he done to turn Villa’s flagging fortunes around? And how good could things get?
How good has Emery’s Villa reign been?
- Only three teams have won more Premier League points than Aston Villa since his arrival
- He led the club to seventh and fourth-place finishes in the past two seasons, having not finished in the top seven since 2010
- Aston Villa have won seven consecutive games in all competitions for the first time since a 10-game winning run between March and April 2019 (while playing in the Championship), doing so as a top-flight side for the first time since March 1981
- Emery is the first Aston Villa manager to have two separate runs of 15 unbeaten Premier League home games
- Villa are into the quarter-finals of the Champions League this season
- Emery has the best win percentage of any manager in Aston Villa history (54%)
- He led Villa back into the European Cup for first time since 1982
- Villa were in the bottom half of the Championship just six years ago