When Unai Emery was unveiled as Aston Villa’s manager, he declared two dreams: one was to win a trophy and the other was to bring European back to Villa Park.
At the time, the latter sounded far-fetched.
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After all, he inherited a team sitting 16th devoid of confidence and direction.
A toxic atmosphere had engulfed the club as supporters turned on then-manager Steven Gerrard, who sank deeper and deeper into his seat in the dugout with each passing defeat.
Co-owner Nassef Sawiris soon had enough of Gerrard’s ineptitude and brutally wielded the axe on the Liverpool legend before the team had even left Craven Cottage after a 3-0 defeat to Fulham on October 20.
It was also Sawiris who led the charm offensive for Emery and eventually convinced the Spaniard to make the jump to Birmingham.
Emery’s impact was immediate.
A 3-1 win over Manchester United at home in his first game in charge set the tone for what was to come, as Emery went on to guide Villa all the way from 16th to 7th and subsequently secure a spot in the Europa Conference League last season.
This season, Emery has Villa in 4th and just two points off top spot yet it somehow feels as if the club is flying under the radar.
But Emery’s transformation can no longer go ignored and is slowly but surely receiving the recognition it deserves.
This is how the meticulous 52-year-old dragged a giant on its knees all the way to dreaming about Champions League nights, something Villa have not experienced since winning the European Cup in 1982.
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In the wake of Gerrard’s sacking, Villa were immediately linked with ambitious managerial targets.
A report from The Telegraph named Mauricio Pochettino as the club’s top target, with Thomas Tuchel and Emery also on the reported shortlist.
Pochettino, who had been let go by Paris Saint-Germain before the 22/23 season began, turned down the approach while Tuchel was never more than a tenuous link.
Sporting boss Ruben Amorim soon emerged in the media as the favourite, but it all proved to be a smokescreen as Emery was confirmed as Villa’s new boss on October 24.
Villa had to pay a reported $AUD9.9 million in compensation to free Emery from his contract at La Liga side Villarreal, a club where he earned hero status having guided the club to the Europa League title in 2021.
Further, Emery and Villarreal were one game away from the Champions League final in 2022, only to lose to Liverpool in the semi finals.
At the time, Emery and Villa did not appear a perfect match for one another.
Emery is a four-time Europa League winner and boasts a coaching CV that includes stops at Paris Saint-Germain, Valencia, Sevilla and Arsenal.
Villa, meanwhile, were in its fourth season back in the Premier League after being promoted from the Championship and hadn’t finished higher than 11th since returning.
Put simply, it seemed a total mismatch given Villa’s struggles ever since Martin O’Neill’s acrimonious departure on the eve of the 2010/11 season.
However, the Birmingham-based club have two highly ambitious billionaire owners in Sawiris and Wes Edens — who also owns the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA — that are hellbent on restoring it to its former glories.
And for Emery, he knew he had unfinished business in England and was desperate to prove to the doubters he could cut it in the Premier League after his tumultuous 18-month spell at Arsenal.
The Spaniard was given the impossible task of succeeding Arsene Wenger, a man who had become synonymous with Arsenal.
Although he guided the Gunners to a Europa League final as well as a spot in the Champions League in his first season, his battles with the English language made him a figure for ridicule and instability at the boardroom level did not help Emery’s case.
Since joining Villa, Emery has been given the support network he needed to thrive.
Damian Vidagany, a close confidant of Emery’s, joined the Spaniard as his personal aide and has been a constant presence of his in press conferences to help with translations and clarifying questions from the press.
Vidagany has since been promoted to the role of Director of Football Operations while Monchi, another close friend of Emery’s, joined prior to the 2023/24 season from Sevilla and took up the role of President of Football Operations.
Per The Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell, the trio have formed a triangle of power and eat breakfast together, with their offices at Bodymoor Heath also in “close proximity.”
In terms of their specific roles, Monchi and Vidagany focus on dealing with a player’s contract, transfer negotiations as well as telling players they’ve been let go, allowing Emery to purely focus on sporting matters.
Although it took time for Emery to create his desired support network, it proved to the Spaniard the owners would give him everything he wanted in order to succeed as Villa manager for as long as he is at the club.
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THE $33M EVIDENCE EXPOSING PL’S BIG BOYS
When Emery arrived, he took over a squad that looked a shell of itself.
Granted, it was not exactly one that screamed Champions League or even Europa League quality, but it was not one that reeked of relegation fodder.
It was also an expensive one: Villa owners Sawiris and Edens had invested around $AUD953 million on it since promotion.
Despite the significant investment, Gerrard struggled to get a tune out of his players during his time at the club as the likes of John McGinn, Tyrone Mings and Ollie Watkins regressed.
Gerrard’s 4-3-2-1 formation, which congested central areas and relied too heavily on wing-backs to provide width, almost always left Villa one-dimensional in attack.
But under Emery, the shackles have come off.
A simplified and fluid 4-4-2, which often morphs into 4-2-2-2, has proved to be the blueprint for success.
So too has Emery’s remarkable ability to extract the maximum from the tools already at his disposal.
Mings, who was stripped of the captaincy and individually singled out by Gerrard as one player who needed to improve, became a colossus at the back once more.
Watkins jostled for starting striker duties with Danny Ings but once the latter was sold to West Ham in January, he felt the full trust of Emery and repaid it in dividends.
The England international enjoyed a staggering run of form from January to April, scoring 11 goals in 12 Premier League games.
Not only that, but Watkins has been involved in 30 goals — whether that’s scoring them himself or providing an assist — in the 37 league games Emery has been in charge of.
The only players with more goal involvements in that time are Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah, emphasising Emery’s transformation of Watkins.
But the most remarkable part of Emery’s improvement of the squad was how he rejigged a midfield cobbled together for just $33 million into one of the Premier League’s best.
McGinn, the captain, arrived from Hibernian in the summer of 2018 for a measly $4.8 million while Douglas Luiz joined in a $28.7 million deal from Manchester City in the following summer.
Boubacar Kamara, Villa’s marquee signing of the 2022 summer window, arrived on a free deal from Marseille while Jacob Ramsey is an academy product.
Despite all four being central midfielders, Emery found a way to incorporate all of them into the middle bank of four with Luiz and Kamara used in the central areas while Ramsey and McGinn are deployed out wide.
Luiz, who is often on set piece duties, has become what The Telegraph’s John Percy described as “indispensable” and the “heartbeat of Villa’s midfield” with his all-action displays.
To put Luiz’s improvement into perspective, he had six goals from 118 Premier League appearances for Villa prior to Emery’s first game in charge.
With Emery at the helm, it took the 25-year-old just 27 games to match that goal figure.
Luiz also enjoyed a remarkable streak of goals at Villa Park, scoring in six consecutive home games across the tail-end of the 22/23 season and the start of the 23/24 season to break Dwight Yorke’s record from the 1995/96 season.
Belgian international Youri Tielemans joined the club prior to the 23/24 campaign on a free deal after his contract with Leicester City expired, adding further quality to an already-stacked midfield department.
Although Tielemans struggled early, he has shown promise in recent performances as he continues to get acclimated with Emery’s tactical demands.
Compare Villa’s outlay on its entire midfield to the likes of Chelsea, who spent an eye-watering $420 million on Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo yet continue to flounder in mid-table mediocrity, with Fernandez yet to even score a Premier League goal.
Emery hasn’t even needed to perform significant surgery in the transfer market, either.
Alex Moreno arrived from Real Betis in January and immediately slotted in at left back, while Colombian striker Jhon Duran was snapped up from Chicago Fire but did not feature prominently.
However, Emery was granted more room to bring in new signings ahead of the 23/24 season and wasted little time in improving the squad.
Spanish international Pau Torres arrived from Villarreal for $60 million while electric winger Moussa Diaby joined from Bayer Leverkusen for $99 million.
Nicolo Zaniolo and Clement Lenglet also moved on loan deals from Galatasaray and Barcelona respectively, adding some much-needed European experience to the squad.
Torres’ remarkable passing ability for a centre back has been crucial to Emery’s game plans while Diaby has developed a telepathic partnership alongside Watkins up top.
The fact Emery was able to do so much last season with essentially the exact same squad Gerrard had at his disposal, aside from Moreno and Duran, emphasises once again the difference in levels at managerial level.
16-HOUR DAYS, A HOME FORTRESS AND THE UNMATHCED TACTICAL TWEAK
A major tactical tweak from Emery that helped spark Villa’s surge is the high defensive line that plays the offside trap better than any team in Europe.
Prior to Villa’s 2-1 victory over Tottenham, they had caught opposition players offside a staggering 163 times.
The next closest team is Liverpool with 93.
What makes Villa’s feat even more impressive is that they hold the highest average number of offsides per game across Europe’s top five leagues at 4.8, per The Athletic.
And no, they aren’t finding themselves offside too often at the other end of the field.
In fact, they have been caught offside only 12 times this season which is the second-lowest figure in the Premier League behind only Manchester City, who have been flagged just seven times.
Another key element of Emery’s Villa revival is the team’s absurd run of form at home.
Villa have won 13 consecutive Premier League games at home, a feat not achieved since 1983, with the first of the streak coming in a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace back in March.
Emery’s troops have been even more relentless at home this season, scoring 23 goals in six games for an average of 3.8 goals a match.
The fortress that is Villa Park will welcome the team’s toughest test in some time, with Manchester City the next opponents to make the trip to the famous ground.
But with Villa growing stronger with each passing game, a win over City might not be out of the question.
The collective improvement of Villa’s players should also not come as a surprise given how meticulous Emery is in his preparation.
The Guardian’s Ben Fisher claimed Emery, a “workaholic” and an “obsessive coach”, will regularly clock 16-hour days at Bodymoor Heath.
Fisher also reported “Emery often cuts his own clips of games to review with players individually and sometimes watches back Villa’s matches up to five times to prepare feedback for his staff and squad.”
The Athletic’s Tanswell also reported Emery holds team meetings for over an hour as he goes over tactics and game plans in “excruciating detail” for Villa’s next opponent.
Emery also wastes little time in analysing games straight away.
On two separate occasions the Villa boss has uploaded photos to his Instagram of him fixated on his laptop while on the team bus after a match, with the message in one caption: “But no time to relax, really focused on Tuesday’s match. We don’t want to stop. We want more.”
Coincidentally both pictures took place after victories away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but Emery is no doubt never far from his laptop after a game no matter who the opponent.
It is this meticulous approach to preparation and analysis that separates Emery from so many of his peers and has Villa level on points with Arsenal in 2023.
What makes Emery’s feats this season even more impressive is the fact he has been without four of his key players for the majority of the campaign.
Mings tore his ACL in the first half of the season opener against Newcastle and will miss the season, while midfielder Emi Buendia suffered a significant knee injury and could also be sidelined for the entire season.
Moreno came off with a hamstring injury in a 1-1 draw against Liverpool late last season and has not played a Premier League minute since, leaving Lucas Digne the only recognised left back in the squad.
Thankfully Moreno made his return to action when he scored the winner in a 2-1 victory over Legia Warsaw in the Europa Conference League
Academy star Ramsey suffered a foot injury while on international duty for England’s U21 side in the off-season and was ruled out for 10 weeks.
Although he scored on his return in Villa’s 6-1 rout of Brighton, Ramsey suffered a reoccurrence of the foot injury and only made his return in the dying minutes of the 2-1 win over Tottenham.
Emery’s ability to deal with four major absences and still achieve what he has this season left Sky Sports pundits Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher in awe.
“I cannot believe what Unai Emery is doing at Aston Villa,” Richards, a former Villa player himself, said.
“It’s sensational. They have some good players but to sustain this for as long as he has with the football they have played.
“They have a really good system and have players who have been around the club for a long time.
“They just manage to keep going and going.”
Jamie Carragher used Villa to showcase the stark difference between a well-coached team and an English giant that often appears quite the opposite.
“If you look back over the last 12 months since Unai Emery came in, if you are talking about Manchester United, Aston Villa are a better coached team than United,” Carragher said.
“There is absolutely no doubt about that.”
The victory over Tottenham allowed Villa to leapfrog the club into fourth place, a position in the table it had not enjoyed since December 2009.
Of course, fourth place this season guarantees a direct passage to the group stages of the Champions League next season.
Yet Emery continues to play down Villa’s hopes of a top four finish, stating the club is “not a contender” just yet and that “there are seven teams more contenders than us” to finish ahead.
But with a spot in the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League locked in and a league position that was unfathomable this time last year, it’s only a matter of time before Emery must concede his team are no longer pretenders and truly are contenders.
