Aston Villa's rebuilt spine is finally holding its shape
After losing six key players in one summer, Unai Emery's reshaped Aston Villa have moved from a chaotic start to wins over Tottenham and Newcastle and a thumping Champions League victory.
Aston Villa did not just lose players this summer, they lost the core of a team that finished fourth and won the Europa League. Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa, Emiliano Martínez, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne all departed, leaving Unai Emery to rebuild around whatever structure remained, as reported by The Analyst (Opta).
The opening weeks suggested that structure barely existed. Villa were beaten 4-0 at Brighton on the first day of the season, with João Gomes dismissed after the hosts had already built a four-goal lead inside 31 minutes. According to The Analyst, only one other Premier League side has conceded four goals, had a man sent off and scored an own goal in a single first half: Southampton against Manchester United in February 2021.
A 1-0 home defeat to champions Arsenal followed, then a goalless draw at promoted Hull City. Across those three matches Villa managed a single shot on target, the lowest total recorded by any Premier League team over the opening three fixtures of a season since 2003-04, per The Analyst. It left Villa as only the second top-flight club, after Ipswich Town in 1969-70 and 1970-71, to fail to score in the first three matches of back-to-back campaigns, having gone scoreless for four games running at the start of 2025-26 itself.
Why the early numbers pointed to a team without a shape
A shot-on-target count that low over three games is not a finishing problem, it is an organisational one. It points to a team unable to generate clean possession in the final third, let alone convert it, which tracks with a squad trying to absorb six new faces into roles vacated by departing regulars. Nottingham Forest then won 1-0, sorry, 2-1 at Villa Park even after Villa had finally scored, deepening the sense that wholesale change had destabilised the team's defensive and attacking transitions alike.
What followed was a gradual rebuild in form rather than a single turning point. Villa beat Coventry City 3-1 away in the League Cup third round before taking their first league win of the campaign at Tottenham, 3-2, a scoreline that would have been more comfortable had they not conceded twice late on. A 2-2 draw at home to Brentford, squandering a lead with 13 minutes left, still read as points dropped rather than ground gained.
The Newcastle win showed a team defending its shape under pressure
Saturday's 1-0 win at Newcastle was different in character. Villa took a first-half lead at St. James' Park and then had to see out the second half against the hosts, a test of defensive solidity rather than attacking fluency. The Analyst notes it was only the second time in 23 Premier League home matches since the start of last season that Newcastle had failed to score, the other occasion also coming against Villa, in a 2-0 win in January.
That victory was also the 100th Premier League win of Emery's managerial career, arriving in his 197th match in the competition (W100 D44 L53); only eight managers have reached that mark in fewer games, according to The Analyst. It gave Villa back-to-back away wins in the league for the first time since December, a run that had stretched to four at that point, and came after Villa had won just two of their previous twelve away league fixtures (D5 L5).
Continuity from the players who stayed is covering for those who left
Villa currently sit 12th in the Premier League, hardly proof that the rebuild is complete. But the pattern beneath the results matters. Matty Cash, Boubacar Kamara, John McGinn and Emiliano Buendía, all retained from last season's squad, have returned to their best form in recent weeks. That continuity appears to be easing the integration of the new arrivals, giving the squad a settled core around which unfamiliar personnel can find their roles more quickly.
Nicolas Jackson is the clearest example of a new signing clicking fast. Signed from Chelsea, he already knew Emery from their time together at Villarreal, and he has scored five goals in nine appearances since joining, per The Analyst.
The clearest sign of progress has come in Europe. Villa beat Club Brugge 3-2 away on their opening Champions League league-phase matchday, a result that looked stronger once Brugge went on to beat Italian champions Inter in the San Siro on the next matchday. Villa then thrashed Fenerbahce 6-0 at Villa Park, their biggest ever win in major European competition and their largest victory under Emery in any competition.
None of this confirms the rebuild is finished, with Villa still mid-table domestically. But the trajectory from a single shot on target in three games to a 6-0 continental rout and a first-choice spine holding its form again suggests the team's early instability was a function of transition rather than a permanent lowering of standard.