Long Decade For Villa Sees Phenomenal Upturn In Form | OneFootball

A decade is a long time in life, but it is almost an eternity in football given how a single week can potentially see a side go from clear title favourites to being unable to even field a full first team squad and the applicable substitutes if a bad virus infects the dressing room – and it is a point that Midlands side Aston Villa continue to prove under taskmaster manager Unai Emery.

Exactly a decade ago, the original Claret and Blues were true Villans and found themselves relegated into the English second tier for the first time since 1987. It was an incredibly limp wristed campaign that saw a 1-0 defeat to Manchester United mark a ninth defeat in a 13 game winless run that predictably sent them down without so much as a whimper and the football news created by their drop reverberated up and down the country.

Ownership changes, HMRC problems, assets being given away, managerial changes, first team squad changes and three years in the proverbial wilderness saw the stars align under boyhood fan Dean Smith who gave the tiny shin pads of fellow boyhood Jack Grealish the freedom of Villa Park and a return to the Premier League was on.

Naturally they struggled, and things got drastically worse when a decision was taken to appoint Steven Gerrard after way too many Balti’s and they looked set for relegation once more. The players would just not look the manager in the eye, he seemed to forget that Philippe Coutinho was not quite as young as he used to be and there was an issue with the tactics…kick the ball at the goal did not seem to work for the promotion winning team.

With an embarrassing defeat to Fulham their NSWE owners did a complete 180, Gerrard was summarily sent back to the pundits box (latterly Saudi Arabia) and they handed the keys to Emery and reportedly acceded to his every wish. The players even looked him in the eye and agreed to sit down and watch tactical videos for a straight 48 hours every three days.

Emery came in with two wins from eleven and the club stuck in 16th place, just one point clear of the drop zone. His first game was a 3-1 win over Manchester United (first home win over them since 1995) by the end of the season they had won 15 of their 25 games, picking up 49 points from an available 75 and only Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool won more, and they finished ninth.

Many other Premier League, and club records, tumbled in the following seasons – the latest being eleven straight wins matching 1897 and 1914, and with Emery reaching 100 wins he is only the third Villa manager to do this. In 2023/24 they were in the Europa Conference League and by the end of that season they had qualified for the Champions League and only lost to eventual winners Paris-Saint Germain.

Missing out on successive CL campaigns by goal difference only in 2025/26, they are now through to the semi finals of the Europa League following a 7-1 aggregate victory over Bologna this week (second Euro semi final in 3 years), whilst still sitting in fourth place in the table. For a short period, second place and maybe even first place could have been on – but we will never know as key midfield trio John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara and Youri Tielemans all quickly dropped out with lengthy injuries and their form (on a potential top two front) collapsed.

It is a phenomenal turnaround for a decade, it is even more mind boggling when you remember Emery only began working at Villa Park on November 1, 2022 and they were one point away from the drop.