Aston Villa want to be pushing the best says forward Salmon | OneFootball

Aston Villa forward Ebony Salmon says that the club want to push the best teams in this season’s Barclays Women’s Super League.

The Villans showed real promise under new head coach Natalia Arroyo in the closing weeks of last season, ending the campaign with five straight wins.

When speaking to WSL Full-Time, Aston Villa forward Salmon said that the team want to carry on their momentum from last season, although 2025/2026 is a brand new challenge.

“Last season ended well both for me personally and for us as a team but this is a new season, players have left and players have come in,” Salmon said. “It’s a new start for us and we definitely want to start this season off how we finished the last one.”

Reflecting on Aston Villa’s late surge into the top half of the table, Salmon said that there wasn’t a particular reason for the team’s upturn in form but the potential was always there.

She said “I wouldn’t say there was an exact moment [where it clicked], I’d say it was a long time coming. We knew the ability we have as individuals and as a team.

“Yeah, it was a long time coming for it to click. I can’t tell you exactly what made it click or why but I’m just happy that it did.”

Going on to discuss this season’s targets, Salmon said that Aston Villa want to continue to climb the table and compete against the top sides.

She said “It’s getting more competitive every year, so for us, the goal that we have to set is to finish as high up the table as possible. We would like to be competing to push into that top four if possible but if not, we want to be pushing the best teams and let the position in the table speak for itself.”

Aston Villa travel to Brighton & Hove Albion on opening day, a side that they defeated twice in the second half of last season. Salmon is again looking at the game as a fresh start in a new season.

She said “I definitely think we can take confidence from the last couple of games against Brighton but it’s a brand new season, we’ve changed, every team has changed. We have to look at it as a fresh season. We start again from the first game against Brighton and go from there.”

Aston Villa’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture at Brighton & Hove Albion kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday 7 September 2025.