Unai Emery is projecting calm as Aston Villa prepare to open their Champions League campaign against Club Brugge on Tuesday, hoping continental football can once again jolt the club into form after a familiar slow start domestically. The trip to Belgium marks the fourth meeting between the two sides in the past two years, and Villa will be desperate for it to spark the kind of turnaround that defined their previous campaign.
Villa arrive in Bruges without a win so far this season, their goalless draw at Hull last weekend offering only fragments of encouragement. Yet the situation mirrors almost exactly where they stood twelve months ago, when they were also without a Premier League point and still 157 minutes away from scoring a goal. That campaign eventually turned into one of the most successful in the club's modern history, culminating in Champions League qualification for the second time in three seasons and a Europa League triumph, so Emery's players have reason to trust the process.
"When we started the project here, the ambition we had, it was [not even] in our highest expectations to be in Europe four years in a row," Emery said. "It was very difficult when we started working together but it was the ambition of the owner. We set our standards high with the players to be there and we are. Now is the moment to remember how we got here and the way we did. Now it is a different moment and chapter."
According to captain John McGinn, Emery remains remarkably composed regardless of results, reserving his sharpest demands for after victories rather than defeats. Last season it took Villa until their seventh match in all competitions to register a win, a McGinn goal settling a Europa League tie against Bologna. That result triggered a remarkable stretch of 17 victories in 19 matches. Half of the squad from that Bologna night has since moved on, but midfielder Emiliano Buendía, who has started every game this term, believes the current group can replicate that surge.
"It has not been the start we wanted, but we are trying to take the positive things from every match," Buendía said. "We will try to change this momentum in terms of results and try to get our confidence back to perform well and achieve the results we want."
Emery's meticulous preparation remains central to his methods, with players reportedly so accustomed to his detailed opposition analysis sessions that McGinn has described them as walking into meetings "like robots." That intensity has not been universally embraced — Jhon Durán, now on loan at Benfica, is remembered as the only player to have asked to leave one of Emery's meetings midway through.
The squad has undergone significant turnover, with 11 new arrivals this summer. Only Zion Suzuki and Nicolas Jackson started against Hull among the newcomers, while Matteo Ruggeri, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Alejandro Garnacho came off the bench. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, a £25million signing, was left out of the Champions League squad altogether, and João Gomes was sent off on his debut. Leon Goretzka, signed on a free transfer from Bayern Munich, is not expected to feature until at least October because of a knee issue, while Johan Manzambi continues to build fitness after his own injury setback.
Despite the underwhelming results, Villa's display against Paris Saint-Germain in the Super Cup — a side Emery rates as the best in the world — offered proof that the team's underlying quality remains intact. Emery, who has previously taken time to fully integrate new signings such as Youri Tielemans, insists patience must be balanced with urgency.
"In football, if you are expecting transition, maybe you are not in the right way," he said last month. "We have to rebuild the team as fast as possible. I don't know if we need time or not. We are progressing — still not enough because we are not getting good results — but tomorrow is a new test in Europe."
Based on reporting from The Guardian.