Unai Emery is not panicking. He may kick every ball on the touchline but, behind closed doors, Aston Villa’s players are used to him being the calmest person in the room, routinely more demanding after victory than defeat. John McGinn tells a story in which the Villa manager, early in his now almost four-year tenure, broke character and lost his cool during a half-time interval not owing to a lukewarm performance but because he witnessed his captain tearing into teammates. In Emery’s eyes, it was McGinn expending unnecessary energy rather than seeking solutions.
Emery, McGinn and Villa have been here before. Just last season, in fact; at this point, they were pointless in the Premier League and still another 157 minutes from registering their first goal. So in one sense Villa, who shook off a slow start to qualify for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons, are ahead of schedule. Villa’s goalless draw at Hull on Saturday was not the most absorbing display but there were enough green shoots to trust Emery when he says he is confident they can again exceed expectations.
It is hard to disbelieve a man with Emery’s record, having overseen the most successful era in the club’s recent history. “When we started the project here, the ambition we had, it was [not even] in our highest expectations to be in Europe four years in a row,” the Villa manager says. “It was very difficult when we started working together but it was the ambition of the owner. We set our standards high with the players to be there and we are. Now is the moment to remember how we got here and the way we did. Now it is a different moment and chapter.”
In these moments, Emery tends to double down on his methods. Last season they did not taste victory until their seventh game of the season in all competitions, McGinn scoring the only goal in a Europa League win against Bologna. Before that game, players assembled around 11.30am for the kind of opposition analysis meeting to which they have grown accustomed, so much so McGinn says they now walk in like robots.
Emery lasers in on players’ positioning and tactical details. Jhon Durán, now on loan at Benfica from Al-Nassr after spells at Fenerbahce and Zenit St Petersburg, is famously the only player to have requested to leave mid-meeting.
Villa face Club Brugge on Tuesday for the fourth time in the past two years, hoping Europe will again ignite their season.
After that victory against Bologna last September, Villa embarked on an extraordinary run of 17 wins in 19 matches. Half of the 14 players involved in that game have departed but one of those who did feature, Emiliano Buendía, is hopeful that Emery’s new-look squad can put together a similar run. “It has not been the start we wanted, but we are trying to take the positive things from every match,” said the Argentinian, who has started all four Villa games this season. “We will try to change this momentum in terms of results and try to get our confidence back to perform well and [achieve] the results we want.”
Another Champions League campaign should not be taken for granted and returning to this stage, after winning the Europa League last season, is arguably Emery’s greatest feat. The strides made under Emery will surely occupy the minds of supporters as they wander the cobbled streets of Bruges and when they explore Barcelona in November, too.
Crucially, Emery is energised by the challenge, helped by the odd siesta at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath base. “Sometimes I need a good nap, after intensive work in the morning,” he said with a smile last week.
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For now, George Hemmings’s 13th‑minute shot against Hull represents Villa’s sole effort on target this campaign. In the same game it was the 19-year-old, who joined from Nottingham Forest aged 16, who supplied Buendía for a golden chance. It is easy to focus on the shortcomings but it would also be remiss to overlook Villa’s encouraging performance in the Super Cup against, in Emery’s view, the best team on the planet; defeat against Paris Saint-Germain was less than a month ago and Villa have only strengthened since.
One of the most exciting of their 11 summer arrivals, the 18-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye, was an unused substitute for PSG in Salzburg. Another talent signed this summer, Johan Manzambi, continues to step up his fitness after a knee injury and could feature as early as Saturday against Nottingham Forest.
Only two of Villa’s new arrivals – Zion Suzuki and Nicolas Jackson – started at Hull last time out. Matteo Ruggeri, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Alejandro Garnacho arrived from the bench. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, a £25m buy omitted from Villa’s Champions League squad, had a watching brief in Yorkshire. João Gomes was sent off on debut. Leon Goretzka, who joined on a free after leaving Bayern Munich, will not feature until at least October after a knee injury setback.
Emery often takes time to integrate signings. Youri Tielemans had to wait four months for his first Villa start before embedding himself as one of Emery’s undroppables. He demands a lot of his players and even more of himself. “In football, if you are expecting transition, maybe you are not in the right way,” he said last month. “We have to rebuild the team as fast as possible. I don’t know if we need time or not. We are progressing – still not enough because we are not getting good results – but tomorrow is a new test in Europe.”