Vibrant Villa on record-breaking winning streak | OneFootball

Aston Villa are on a roll and their 2-1 win over FC Basel last night was the latest in a remarkable eight-game winning run — their longest streak as a top flight side since 1914. 

After a slow start to the campaign Unai Emery's side have been resurgent and the Spanish coach praised his side's resilience after their success in Switzerland.   The Villa manager admitted the emotional toll of Sunday’s last-gasp win over Arsenal made this latest victory especially meaningful. “It is not easy to recover our spirit and structure and mentality to keep the same hard work,” he said. “We struggled today… but I am happy with how we got this victory.”

Despite making eight changes from that dramatic Premier League triumph, Emery watched his rotated side take control when Evann Guessand guided in his second goal for the club. Basel, with Roger Federer watching on, levelled through Flavius Daniliuc after a smart free-kick by Xherdan Shaqiri, shifting the momentum and testing Villa’s resilience once again.

But as has become a theme during this run, the decisive moment came from the bench. Following recent match-winning contributions from Donyell Malen and Emiliano Buendia, Youri Tielemans became the latest supersub to deliver, sweeping in from the edge of the box for his first goal since May after Buendia rolled the ball into his path.

The result keeps Villa firmly on course for the Europa League last 16, with 15 points from six matches and ties against Fenerbahce and Red Bull Salzburg to follow.

Emery highlighted not just the scoreline but the collective discipline behind it. “Our idea at the start of the season was to manage all the players and give them the chance to play and help us,” he said. “How we are managing it like today — I like how they are responding and how we are building the team with every player.”

Villa have now won 14 of their past 16 games, a remarkable turnaround from their winless opening stretch.

They travel to West Ham on Sunday - with Arsenal (10) the only top flight team to string together more victories across all competitions this season.