Five Reasons to be Cheerful as Villans after Arsenal Home Defeat
With the new season following the rather unwelcome pattern of last year’s slow start, Aston Villa once again failed to register a shot on target despite producing a competitive performance against champions Arsenal.
After the game, Unai Emery also confirmed that Villa’s transfer business was finally complete, bringing the curtain down on one of the most topsy-turvy windows in recent memory. With a significant turnover of players, a new-look squad still finding its feet and precisely zero points on the board, optimism might on face value seem in short supply. Nevertheless, here are the latest Five Reasons to be Cheerful as Villans.
There’s a Pulse
After the heavy defeat at Brighton, the prospect of a depleted Villa side welcoming champions Arsenal to Villa Park had all the ingredients for a potentially chastening afternoon. Instead, Emery’s side matched Arsenal for long periods and could perhaps consider themselves unfortunate not to have taken a point.
There were plenty of individual positives too. Nicolas Jackson showed flashes of his all-round ability, linking neatly with his new teammates, demonstrating some tidy close control in tight areas and contributing to some encouraging interplay in attack. Once he has more quality around him and greater familiarity with Emery’s system, there were enough signs to suggest he can become an important part of a potent Villa attack.
New goalkeeper Zion Suzuki also impressed in difficult circumstances. An excellent one-on-one save demonstrated his shot-stopping ability, but perhaps most eye-catching was the quality and range of his distribution, offering Villa another way of breaking opposition lines from deep. There were a couple of minor wobbles from set pieces and one ball he would have preferred to hold, but overall it was a decent debut against elite opposition.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka provided an excellent cameo from the bench, while Alysson immediately brought some much-needed directness when introduced. For all the upheaval, and with so much of last season’s spine either departed or unavailable, Villa still managed to trouble one of the best sides in the country.
The final incisive pass was frustratingly absent, but the organisation, fight, and intensity were all there. No points and no shots on target don’t make particularly attractive reading, but the performance offered considerably more encouragement than the statistics suggest.
Onlookers
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of Villa’s performance was the quality that wasn’t even on the pitch.
Watching from the stands were new arrivals Ibrahim Mbaye, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Leon Goretzka, Johan Manzambi, and the suspended João Gomes. None were available to face Arsenal, yet a depleted Villa side still went toe-to-toe with the champions for much of the afternoon.
Their introduction over the coming weeks should significantly change the complexion of the side. Harwood-Bellis adds another important option to the defence, while Goretzka brings considerable experience and quality to midfield. Mbaye offers further pace and attacking threat, but perhaps most exciting is the prospect of Manzambi providing the missing link between midfield and attack following Morgan Rogers’ departure.
That link was noticeably absent at times against Arsenal, with Villa producing some promising football without quite finding the final pass to turn possession into genuine chances. Manzambi has been signed to help solve precisely that problem.
After several seasons in which Emery’s options have regularly been stretched to breaking point, he finally has a younger, deeper, and more balanced squad to work with. If Villa can compete with the champions while several of the new pieces are still sitting in the stands, there should be plenty more to come.
Game Time
Brighton away, followed by Arsenal at home, was always going to represent a difficult opening fortnight, even before Villa’s summer descended into transfer chaos.
Despite Hull’s excellent start to the campaign, next weekend should feel like the moment Villa’s season properly begins. The transfer window is closed, Emery knows exactly who he has at his disposal and several of the new arrivals should be closer to making their debuts.
In many respects, the opening two matches have felt like an extension of pre-season. There can be no such excuses from here.
Hull is followed by Nottingham Forest at Villa Park. Neither fixture should be taken lightly, but both are eminently winnable and provide an opportunity for this new-look side to quickly put its pointless start behind it.
Pre-season is finally over. It’s time to start the season.
Return of the Champions League
The Champions League fixtures have finally landed and Villa can start plotting another European campaign.
A trip to the Nou Camp is undoubtedly the glamour fixture, while Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray and PSG provide further heavyweight opposition. Club Brugge somehow find themselves in Villa’s orbit once again, while Fenerbahçe adds another intriguing European night to the schedule.
But there is a notable difference in how supporters can view these fixtures now. Barcelona away is exciting, but facing Europe’s biggest clubs is no longer some distant dream or novelty for Aston Villa. Emery’s side have already demonstrated that they belong at this level, followed up their previous Champions League campaign by lifting the Europa League in Istanbul, and will enter this year’s competition believing they can cause problems for anyone.
The draw isn’t straightforward, but neither should Villa fear it. Having finished in the top eight two seasons ago and subsequently become European champions, qualification for the knockout stages should be the expectation rather than the ambition.
Barcelona, Dortmund, Galatasaray and PSG are great names to have on the fixture list. Increasingly, Aston Villa is one too.
North Stand Progressing
While most attention has understandably been focused on rebuilding the team, the rebuilding of Villa Park continues at some pace in the background.
Despite the scale of the project and the inevitable disruption it has caused supporters this season, the new North Stand remains on schedule for completion ahead of the start of next season. Delivering such a substantial redevelopment within a single campaign means the inconvenience should at least be relatively short-lived.
Once completed, the increased capacity will provide an important boost to matchday and commercial revenues at precisely the time Villa need to continue closing the financial gap on the clubs they are now regularly competing against.
There should also be a significant benefit inside the ground. Replacing the ageing North Stand with a larger, more imposing end should help enclose Villa Park and, hopefully, make the atmosphere even better.
For now there are cranes, restricted capacity and inconvenience. By this time next year, Villa should have a bigger and better Villa Park to show for it.
UTV
Follow Armen on Twitter/X here – @VillanArmen
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