Perhaps a little surprisingly, Villa opened the 2024-25 season with a win away to West Ham. I say surprisingly because the preseason was, of necessity, more than a bit deceptive. Knowing that he could rely on his veterans to continue on, Emery conducted truly extended training by fielding all sorts of combinations throughout the summer to see what he has. It didn’t result in a string of victories and that might have been a bit worrisome, but fears were eased considerably when the core squad opened the season with three points in a generally assured fashion.
While West Ham will always pose a threat and are a good side, Villa definitely opened brighter, controlling possession and ultimately squandering the opportunity to blow the game open in the first half. Wouldn’t have been unfair at all had Villa entered the break up 3-0. But they didn’t, and a penalty leveled things. Watching the side lose its way a little in the second half, Emery went to the bench and got what he was looking for: fresh impetus that led to a fine goal and a deserved win.
You’ve got to like it. Resilient, calm, and players that can change things. Excellent way to open a season and start getting your feet under you. It was a quality win and we’ve almost begun to take it for granted. That’s how much expectations have been raised because that’s how good a job Emery has done.
Arsenal obviously represent a much sterner test. A very good team and a very good manager who might be a bit precious. But we can’t deny they’ve climbed into firm second place with a good chance of being first. Having done the double on them last season, and in doing so ultimately taken the points they needed to finish top, I imagine they’re going to be more than a little motivated. So I’m glad this one’s at home.
Naturally, the game’s dynamics will be the interesting part. Are Villa pinned back? Is it more even? Do Villa somehow maintain the impetus? Will we see the longer balls they were attempting last week? Has Sterling signed? (I’ve not read anything yet today.)
Can Villa beat them again? Of course. Will they? Odds are probably against it. But if anything, we’ve learned never to underestimate Emery, and with fresh legs and Champions League awaiting, I imagine the boys will be up for it and looking to lay down an early marker. Me, I’d be happy with a draw, but something tells me I’m holding out for a win. My heart tells me lots of silly things. But these days, they don’t seem as silly, and I’d rather that than wondering how narrow we can keep the margin of defeat.
You’ll also notice I’m not advising Emery to park the bus and look for a counter or set piece to pull off the upset. That’s just not how he rolls. Might be how the game plays out, but it won’t be by design, which is partly why Onana joined.
Starting XI is unchanged, as I’d expect: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Onana, Bailey, Tielemans, McGinn, Rogers, Watkins.
Over to you.
The Author
John Clark
John is co-owner of AVL, and has followed the Villa since the '70s. A journalist by trade, he is, by most accounts, a very nice person. You can follow me on Twitter @JClarkKohoutek. It's an astonishing experience. Or a complete waste of time.Comments 36
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Fascinating half, I was engrossed. Arsenal edging the possession part, but Villa look pretty evenly matched. Shame about Ollie’s miss. Thought that was a dead cert. Great save by Emi.
Glad we’re returning the physicality.
Kosta doing well so far.
Oh ollie
Not our day,all the subs we have got ragged
Michael Oliver is a ????
Well, certainly not a game we deserved to lose.
I guess you could say if in our 1-0 win last year we rode our luck, today it went the other way.
2 tough openers out the way,super win last week,today our own fault
Good points new lads all look good ,seamless fit in,ramsay getting minutes,Duran looks a happy bunny
Bad poi is euros hangover mcginn Watkins off the boil,martinez 2nd goal
today will upset him
Maybe not having got a replacement for diaby
But how good has Rogers started, best outfield player today
It turned out to be a cagey affair. Gutted with the outcome. But when top opposition show us this much respect, you know we’re doing well.
Had Ollie buried his two open goals we would probably have won it. On another day he scores them both. But these things do happen to strikers.
Thought Rogers had a good game. And I’m taking to Maatsen who looks mobile. The selection of Cash was obviously a risk given he only lasted for the opening encounters. Bailey also had an excellent game, he chased back and cleared a dangerous break when they sprung our high line. Great covering of our central defence. Nice one Leon.
Think this squad is going to mature into a real force. It’s one already but will get even better. As John says above, the Arse had some luck today. So disappointment at the result is tempered with satisfaction that we gave a good account of ourselves.
We move on to the Foxes away next week. I’m sure Unai will set us up to win it. On to the next game.
Only saw first half then had to go out. Just got in and found out the result. Seems Ollie is useless and incompetant. Obviously cost us the match. We have to go out and spend squillions on a proper unnamed centre forward who must be better ‘cos we’ve spent squillions on him. Does Unai know what he is doing relying on a duffer like Watkins?
For over a decade now, the day after playing one of the top2 sides in the country you’d almost invariably think “ok, we lost, but it doesn’t matter, it’s not a game we were ever going to win”. It’s a sign of how far we’ve come that this morning feels so different. I still feel absolutely gutted about yesterday’s result. It’s a game that we not only ‘could’ have won, but we ‘should’ have won!
There’s no way of getting away from it, the difference yesterday was Ollie’s lack of sharpness in front of goal.
He’s had one hell of a summer, and it must be difficult to come down from all that excitement and get fully back into match mode. We’ve seen him do it before though and yesterday will no doubt have shaken him and he’ll be wanting to drive himself back into top goalscoring form. It won’t have helped that the England stand in manager was there to see him miss two gold plated chances either.
Putting that to one side. . . . . Morgan Rodgers! What did we just watch? I just loved the changes of pace: one second, strolling forward with the ball at his feet, looking around the pitch to see who’s where, and then as someone comes to tackle him, he shrugs them off and accelerates away. His close ball control was so good that I initially thought that he was lucky that the ball kept falling his way, but then he kept on doing it! It must be my innate superstition that usually holds me back from going overboard about a player’s performance, but yesterday, it was just so exciting to watch a player in a Villa shirt just dominating the pitch the way he did.
I have to also mention Onana. I was dubious about us spending so much money on him . . . .I mean. . . Aston Villa spending £50,000,000 on one player??!! What a difference he’s brought to the balance of the side though. There’s been so much talk about our lack of physicality, but he and Rodgers have given us that extra bit of beef that we were looking for.
jbd, the vast majority of fans seem to be very sensible about Ollie’s current state of fitness of body or mind, or both, but inevitably there are a tiny few who are even suggesting dropping him. Possibly they drowned their sorrows last night and only one of their 2 brain cells has so far managed to wake up this morning.
r0bb0
Morgan Rogers is unquestionably the dog’s spherical bits. Got to be in with a shout for international recognition within the next 12 months. We worry about a back up for Ollie – well I reckon Rogers could be the player – never mind flakey Duran. Would love to see Rogers teamed up with a proper old school CF. Toney comes to mind. Just a plan B to a solo Ollie plan A!
Yeah, Rogers really is looking like a find. He was growing into it last season, and he’s showing even more now. He’s strong (big guy), fast, and very good on the ball. Excellent carrier. As you’ve all just said above.
And to r0bb0’s point, the fact we feel gutted losing to Arsenal does say a lot. As does the fact I’m not happy they got two. TWO! 😉
The day after,feeling so so,yes we lost but we were toe to toe for most part,chances missed,our 2 fullbacks switched off for 1 second and got punished, but for me watching Rogers boss arsenal midfield was unreal ,and to thinks he is only playing Premier league for 4 months, we are not playing highline this season either,it’s fantastic that emery is on a new plan now with a squad filling with his players,and from that how good have tielmens and onana started, emery is going to have big problems when injured players get fit and new lads all get up to speed
Nice run of games coming to get us warmed up for champions league,roll on Friday for draw and end of transfer window
Quietly confident on another great season coming
I see Neal Maupay has been responding to some abuse that the players received at Euston station after they got mullered by Spurs. He says “Imagine another job where it’s normalised to get abuse like this”.
Whilst I would never condone or partake in any such behaviour, I can’t help but ask “imagine another job where it’s normalised to get £50,000 per week or £2.6 million per annum for kicking a ball like this”.
He could always chuck it in and walk away but of course he never will. I’d be delighted to receive such abuse if my salary was that generous.
JG,
Funny, isn’t it? A bit gutted losing to such a good side. For me it’s that we went toe to toe, and deserved something. But on the other hand it’s great to genuinely feel that way about our side and performance.
You always love a win, sometimes quite happy with a draw. But it’s a far cry from being 1-0 up from a 3rd-minute goal, hanging on, and then shipping two somewhere after the 75th minute.
btw…Ian got a ‘data leak’ message, told to change his password here.
Couple things:
1) He got a fatal error trying to do that
2) There’s only emails and passwords on the site. Which means there’s not a larger issue for anyone.
3) I’ve not received any notice from the hosting provider.
So if you’ve gotten a similar message, make sure you’re not using your AVL password for anything else. I’ll see if I can find out anything more. Obvs don’t want anything getting hijacked, etc.
Hope Ian gets sorted out relatively easy,
Football matters sooner window shuts the better, some villa fans having right meltdowns, not since Big Ron’s time have I been so content as a villa fan only difference is the way the club is run
Everyone fans managers all ways want more players am pretty sure emery is not happy with way us and few others clubs have to do business, bit he knows what’s going on,and is at ease with it
2 games into new season and for parts we have been brilliant, super Football completely different style from last season, all done without a decent preseason
Carabo draw tonight, better still we can’t play any of rest European sides,then massive one Thursday evening, end transfer window Friday, match Saturday and finally fixtures for champions league matches Sunday,would love if we got celtic away, might be a possibility to go to
Away to Wycombe
Ah…the benefits of being seeded James. Yet another “innovation” (some may say Fix) to help the big boys win everything eh? Only this time it’s our turn to benefit.
Looking forward to learning who we get in the UCL tonight.
On a separate issue, I hope Heck has got the entrance gates sorted by the next home game. This new digital ticket business is crap and not fit for purpose. It might be when it’s working, but should not be released live until it is. Dunno how anyone is going to get in without a mobile phone.
I fixed my problem. Deleted the site and re-signed up. It kept my user name and password.
Plug, you forgot Stevenage a couple years ago.
Bayern Munich, leipzig,brugge,juventus,celtic,young boys celtic Monaco and bologna
Juventus and Douglas Luis
Celtic and john mcginn
Bologna and Illing junior
Only connections I know
How could I forget Peter withe shin,Nigel spink heroics and bayern Munich
JG, yes some fans are having meltdowns about this transfer window but I think this article helps put things in context: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/damian-vidagany-nailed-before-transfer-29837719?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=communities
You can be sure that the whingers have never run anything meaningful in their lives, so simply don’t understand the rigours of trying to run a business, particularly one which has to comply with different sets of financialrules, and with those rules changing from season to season!
I doubt there are many of us who appreciated just how close to the wire we were with FFP rules and having done better than expected, we now have to comply with UEFA’s (different) rules too.
Kids will be kids though,
so no doubt t some fans will continue to lie on their backs, scrwaming and waving their arms and legs in the air in frustration. . . . .because that’s what spoilt kids are like!
Very true rOBb0, the whingers are just spoilt kids having tantrums. The business conducted by Villa has been exemplary given the shackles placed upon us. The Wai Ayes have also suffered whereas Chelsea just continue to scatter £££’s in the wind. At some point, the authorities are going to hammer them but Todd Boehly is a law unto himself. Watch this space.
Some tasty European games coming our way. They are going to be tough and at a skill level we have not seen before. Most EPL games are very tough but our players will learn much from the upcoming Euro experiences. Oh, and surely Wycombe are not going to do a Stevenage on us Ian. However, if Ollie misses one more open goal, the whingers will want him BINNED.
Great to see Tyrone training with rest of lads today,hopefully his return isn’t far away
any Villa fan who didn’t feel a tingle of excitement seeing us in The CL draw surely isn’t really a Villa fan? I’m feeling a mix of excitement and apprehension about the games, but mostly excitement.
My previous comment about the transfer window wasn’t suggesting that I was totally happy with all of our transfer dealings, and that we’re now fully prepared for sustained PL and CL campaigns, but it was accepting the reality of the fact that we’re severely constrained, but seem to have progressed the squad somewhat despite that. So much will hinge on fitness and injuries through the season. The squad does seem to have slightly more flexibility in depth than last year, but 3 or 4 injuries in key positions would still leave us stretched. That’s where the likes of City and Chelsea (how the **** are they still allowed to do it?) have the upper hand, with their squad depths.
I can’t find which games are played where and when. . . .has that been decided yet?
JG, yes, it’s good to see Tyrone training with the squad again and maybe only a month away from being available for selection and Kamara hopefully only a month or so behind him.
I do like Emery’s openness. In an interview about England selections he very directly stated that Rodger’s selection for the England u21 squad was a nonsense. He has a very good point. The u21 games can give good experience to some players, but that just is not the case for Rodgers. . . .they’re just opportunities for injuries, which is exactly what happened to Jacob R last season. On the other hand, he welcomed Philogene’s inclusion in the u21 squad, as he is at a different stage of his development and will have fewer opportunities this season to test himself against top opposition. Emery isn’t concerned about potentially upsetting PB by his comments, he’s just stating facts as he sees them, and you imagine he uses exactly there same straight talking, and open style directly to his players.
I am in a competition with ex colleagues, where we guess each weekend’s PL results and my superstition cost me last year, because I couldn’t bring myself to predict Villa wins (yeah. . .I know . . .stupid)
Anyway. . . . I decided not to fall into the same trap this year so have predicted a villa 1-2 win this afternoon.
Ok. . . . you now know who to blame if we don’t come away with 3 points!
I did actually ponder whether that was the right prediction as we know how hard Leicester will fight, with a loud crowd behind them, for what is a sort of derby fixture for them. . . . .there’s that mix of apprehension and excitement again!
Young boys away first,followed by bayern 1st u der lights at villa Park,ending with celtic at end of January,it’s miraculous to think it’s only few years since Chinese doc spud head and Scott hogan
It is all very enticing, looking ahead.
First things first, though. Fresh page is up.