Former Aston Villa star identifies ‘the best way’ Unai Emery can succeed this season after dreadful start

Aston Villa could attempt to follow Tottenham Hotspur’s example to regain a place in the Champions League, according to one football pundit.

Villa have started the Premier League season in awful form and were dumped out of the Carabao Cup at Brentford on Tuesday.

Manager Unai Emery was positive about the slight improvement in performance and a former Villa player suggested that Emery, who has already had to think hard about his priorities for the season with injuries and a lack of depth already beginning to bite, might not be too upset about exiting the fourth-most important competition.

The aim for Villa this season is to return to the Champions League. With the league route off to a poor start and Emery knowing the way to Europa League success, the road travelled by Spurs last season is an enticing one for the Villa boss.

‘It could be that he doubles down’

Winning the Europa League would take Villa back into the Champions League and Emery can take some confidence from his own experience in the competition, even with his team unable to gain a foothold in the new season.

Ange Postecoglou led Spurs to the Europa League trophy in 2024/25 and eventually focused all his efforts there, essentially sacrificing league placings without relegation on the cards.

Speaking on Sky Sports, former Villa defender Curtis Davies plotted the Europa League route.

“I think under lights, Villa Park, European nights, especially against a Bologna side, I think Unai Emery’s history with that competition, having won it five times, it could be that he doubles down on that competition,” said Davies.

“That’s not to say he’s going to do it in the Spurs way, where he lets the league totally fall by the wayside, but I think he maybe sees a realism in his squad that’s going to be his best way to get into that Champions League.

“Does he fancy them for the top five as much as he did last year? Maybe not.”

Davies joined Villa under Martin O’Neill in 2007 and was unable to maintain form and fitness for long enough to have a lasting impact.

In all, he played in nine UEFA Cup and Europa League games for the club before he was sold to Birmingham City.

Emery’s record in the Europa League

Prioritising the Europa League from September would be a crazy high-wire act for Emery but there’s no doubt he and Villa have an eye on continental success this season. Emery has plenty of pedigree in Europe’s secondary club competition.

The future Villa boss achieved an extraordinary run of success in the competition he knows better than anyone else. He became a Europa League winner as the manager of Sevilla in 2013/14 and again in 2014/15, before completing an incredible run the next year.

Emery won the Europa League again in 2015/16. Having dropped out of the Champions League, Sevilla went on to win the competition by beating Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the final in Basel.

Villarreal’s final win over Manchester United in Gdansk in 2020/21 gave Emery an astonishing fourth Europa League victory.

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