Unai Emery’s Aston Villa will be looking to get revenge on Manchester United this weekend as they hope to move Arsenal and Manchester City closer to the title race.
210 days after their controversial defeat at Old Trafford on the final day of the 2024-25 season, Unai Emery’s side missed out on the Champions League with a 2-0 defeat, but Villa will face Man United again with their sights set on further joining Europe’s elite.
Villa are within reach of Man City and Arsenal in the title race, and righting the wrongs of their last encounter with Ruben Amorim’s side is their latest opportunity to turn their title dreams into a more attainable reality.
Asked if the end of last season gave him extra motivation ahead of Sunday’s match at Villa Park, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports, Emery told Sky Sports: “Of course it does.”
Sunday, December 21st 3:30pm
4:30pm kickoff
“Manchester United are a very difficult team. In the three years since I’ve been here, we’ve performed against them, competed, sometimes beat them, sometimes been behind but always close, so I’m very motivated to try and be consistent against them.”
“Right now we’re in front of them and have some advantage, but it’s a really big moment for us to play for three points on Sunday. It’s a big motivation for us to have this opportunity.”
“You have to be humble to believe you can win the title.”
Emery has so far been reluctant to put his team in contention for the title, always focusing all his attention on the next game.
Opta currently have just a 5.8 per cent chance of winning their first league title since 1981, but the fact that these conversations are taking place only underlines the remarkable turnaround since Emery arrived at the Second City in October 2022.
A return to the championship seemed more likely than a silver medal.
Unai Emery to be appointed as Steven Gerrard’s successor at Aston Villa in October 2022
A difficult Christmas period approaches, with away games against Chelsea and Arsenal following the United clash, but when the Villa manager was asked about the title race, he smiled wryly and remained tight-lipped on the subject.
“Of course we want to be favorites to win the Premier League, but we are not favorites to win the Premier League,” Emery admitted.
“We have performed very well, we have very good competition and we are currently in third place, this is the reality.
“But in order to feel like we are favorites and really think we can win the Premier League, our aim is to be consistent and to be very demanding, and to be humble through it all.”
Can Villa beat xG?
Emery’s reference to consistency came up in the discussion surrounding the team’s success.
Villa have scored 25 goals in the top flight from an expected goals value of just 17.11 xG. Tottenham are currently the only team to outperform this metric.
Morgan Rodgers’ winning goal against West Ham, Boubacar Kamara’s thunderous strike at home to defeat Wolverhampton Wanderers and Emi Buendia’s performance that stunned Tottenham away.
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Morgan Rodgers hits a great shot against West Ham
These are just some of the goals that have contributed to an incredible 10 wins in the last 11 Premier League games, but is it sustainable?
Emery has chosen to build on his recent success and focus on areas of improvement, which may have turned out to be the case.
“We work in different ways every day to win games. First is defense, because we have to defend strongly,” he continued.
“Secondly, offensively, how can we improve overall, tactically, and try to make sure each player is able to show his quality and play in the best position he feels comfortable playing?
“And we score goals in different ways. Set pieces are very important and we work on a lot while leading. How to feel good is my priority every day and every game we face.”
“Even if we win, there are still a lot of things we need to improve on.”
Emery opens door to January contract
It’s not just the Premier League that Villa are aiming to qualify for. Last season, Emery led his team to the Champions League quarter-finals, the FA Cup semi-finals and, as mentioned above, fought for a top-five spot until the final whistle.
Villa are well placed to repeat similar success in all competitions this season.
They are currently level on points with Lyon and Midtjylland in the Europa League standings, but one of the reasons they were able to make such a breakthrough in the second half of last season was the timely arrivals of Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio, Axel DiSasi and Donyell Malen in the January transfer window.
Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio will play for Aston Villa on loan during the 2024/25 season
Despite Villa’s limited funds this summer, Emery did not rule out the possibility of reinforcements. “Of course we are open to doing that and the club is working towards that,” he said.
“But last year was really great, with Malen, Rashford, Asensio and DiSasi. Those four players came in and helped us a lot.”
“We have to be ready this year and pay attention to how we can improve our team and be ready to do it if we need to.”
Emery won’t allow titles or transfers to be talked about openly, but the atmosphere at Bodymoor Heath suggests the club is rediscovering its potential.
Calm, focused, and quietly ambitious. This Villa team are enjoying the journey step by step, with growing confidence that it could lead to something special at the end of the season.
Watch Aston Villa vs Man United live on Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event on Sundays from 3:30pm to 4:30pm kick-off
