Aston Villa will play in the Champions League next season after confirming fourth place, and Unai Emery has shown Villa have nothing to fear going into 2024/25.
Aston Villa have written themselves into the 2024/25 class of Europe’s elite by qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
The Villans saw their fourth-place finish confirmed on Tuesday night as Tottenham lost to Manchester City, seeing the Lilywhites now unable to catch the Midlands club.
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It’s a spectacular achievement and one that Unai Emery and his spirited players deserve a lot of praise for, in what has been a thrilling 2023/24 campaign with just one game remaining.
While everything surrounding Villa is rightly positive at the moment, there will be some critics doubting the club’s chances ahead of playing in the Champions League although, Emery’s side has nothing to fear.
Aston Villa will not fear Champions League pressure thanks to Unai Emery
In his first full season in charge at Villa Park, Emery has delivered Champions League football, a prospect that many would have laughed at just a few years ago.
Due to the Spaniard’s success in returning to the Premier League, it’s easy to forget that the former Arsenal boss took charge of Villa from Steven Gerrard in October 2022, not even two years ago.
Back then, Villa were 16th in the Premier League table, adding to the spectacle the Emery has pulled off so far at the club.
Speaking on the Claret and Blue podcast, journalist John Townley celebrated the manager’s achievements, as well as insisting that the Villans have nothing to fear ahead of challenging Europe’s elite.
“This is his first full season at Villa, which is mad, I think it gets lost in a lot of people. The impact, the transformation is unrecognisable from where we were. It’s really exciting.
“We’ve had a European campaign this season, we’ve had injuries, we’ve had everything you could throw at us, everything you could say to why Villa could maybe fall off next season, we’ve answered this season.”
Aston Villa have already answered any concerns
Townley was correct in saying that Villa have ‘answered’ any doubts that an outsider may have regarding the club’s strength to play in the Champions League.
For starters, this season has not been a ‘fluke’, Villa are where they are supposed to be having progressed from their astonishing seventh-place finish last term, rising from relegation loiterers to European qualification.
The road of 2023/24 has been enjoyable for Villa, but not without challenges along the way, with the majority of concern coming from the injury front.
31 minutes into the campaign, Emery had lost two of his key players to season-ending injuries, with Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia both falling victim to ACL blows.
Boubacar Kamara later joined that list, taking Villa’s total to an eye-watering three ACL injuries for the term, as well as a host of other key players missing for lengthy periods due to less severe problems.
Emery’s adaptability has shone through this season, highlighted by the squad’s ability to finish fourth in the Premier League and reach the Europa Conference League semi-final, all without having a fully fit squad for the entire campaign.
Concerns over Villa’s flexibility and squad capabilities to combat European football and the Champions League have already been answered, with an injury record as steep as this year unlikely to be replicated again – or so many will hope.
The Champions League is a different calibre of competition to the Conference League however, the demands remain the same regardless of the opposition.
Emery has delivered a thrilling Premier League season with a limited squad this term, confirming Champions League football and running to the final four of the Conference League, with adaptability that must now be replicated at a marginally higher level.
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