Aston Villa slump raises questions over team direction | OneFootball

Emery Faces Early-Season Questions as Aston Villa Struggle

Villa’s Stuttering Start

Three successive European campaigns and a top-four finish followed by a place in the top six were meant to be the springboard for another big season under Unai Emery. Yet Aston Villa’s 2025-26 campaign has begun in uncharacteristically sluggish fashion. Five league games into the new season, Villa remain without a win, have scored only once in the Premier League and are already out of the Carabao Cup.

Villa, who famously beat Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain in last season’s Champions League, look a shadow of the side that thrilled fans just a few months ago. Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson summed it up on BBC Radio 5 Live after the 1-1 draw at Sunderland.“They look clunky, they don’t look fluid, and they are not the same team they were last year,” Robinson said. “It is just not clicking for Aston Villa.”

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Struggles at the Stadium of Light

Robinson watched from the stands as Emery’s side laboured against newly promoted Sunderland, who played over an hour with ten men after Reinildo was sent off for kicking out at Matty Cash. Despite the numerical advantage, Villa managed only two shots on target.

Cash’s 67th-minute thunderbolt from distance looked to have secured a vital win, only for Wilson Isidor to equalise eight minutes later. Emery did not hide his frustration, describing Villa’s defending as “lazy” before adding: “Maybe it’s the consequences we are not feeling dominating or playing our style.”

Goal Drought Becomes a Concern

Villa’s attack has been unrecognisable compared to the last two seasons, when they scored 134 league goals and secured consecutive top-six finishes. Cash’s strike ended a 427-minute goalless run, with only Crystal Palace in 2017-18 and Newcastle United in 2005-06 enduring longer waits for a first league goal at the start of a campaign.

“They have got the first league goal off their backs but they didn’t create a lot,” Robinson added. “And they were a bit slow, pedestrian in midfield.”

Ollie Watkins, who struck 16 times last season, has just one goal in his last ten league games. Dutch forward Donyell Malen also squandered a late chance at Sunderland, underlining Villa’s lack of clinical edge.

Emery Calls for Patience

Despite the poor run, Emery remains determined to turn things around. “We need to play better, we need to control better, we need to dominate better, we need to get our style,” he said post-match. “Then the goals and assists will come. We are a little bit down in my expectation in how we are building as a team.”

Villa fans will hope those words signal a turnaround. With European fixtures looming and confidence fragile, Emery’s challenge is to rediscover the fluency and intensity that made Villa such a dangerous proposition last season. Goals, and victories, must come soon if momentum is to be restored.