An Unai Emery masterclass - Aston Villa 2025-26 season review

Villa have just completed their most successful season for 30 years.

Unai Emery’s team claimed a fourth-place finish to secure a Champions League return, while ending the club’s long trophy drought in the Europa League.

These are the talking points from a campaign which will live long in the memory.

Successes

There were plenty. The 2025-26 season was Villa’s best season for at least 30 years with Unai Emery’s team securing a fourth-placed Premier League finish and Champions League return, while also ending the club’s wait for silverware in the Europa League.

After failing to win any of their first six matches, Villa sparked to life in late September and for three months rivalled Arsenal as the best team in the country, winning 12 out of 13 Premier League matches and equalling a 128-year-old club record with 11 consecutive victories.

Their blistering momentum could not be maintained and a trio of damaging injuries to Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans and John McGinn put paid to their title challenge.

But Villa still had enough in the tank to stamp their Champions League return, while the 3-0 Europa League final win over Freiburg in Istanbul automatically ranks among the greatest nights in club history.

No longer can Emery and his players be accused of being nearly men.

Failures

These were mostly in the transfer market.

Emery was forced to admit toward the end of the season the situation around Harvey Elliott had been “embarrassing” for everyone concerned.

The midfielder joined on deadline day at the start of September but the manager appeared unconvinced from the start and a clause in the deal which meant Villa had to buy Elliott outright once he had made 10 Premier League appearances, essentially left the 22-year-old in limbo.

With neither club willing to budge, Elliott would make just one league start and only nine outings in total across a wasted campaign.

Other signings also struggled. Evann Guessand, a £30m buy from Nice, made only three Premier League starts before being moved out on loan to Crystal Palace during the January transfer window, while Jadon Sancho delivered only modest returns on loan from Manchester United.

Even the January return of fan favourite Douglas Luiz fell rather flat. This was a season when success was achieved in spite of Villa’s rather average recruitment record.

Manager

This was undoubtedly Unai Emery’s finest season yet. There’s an argument it ranks as the best of his entire 20-year managerial career.

The Spaniard was facing serious questions for the first time in his reign when Villa made their dreadful start to the campaign, yet he turned things around and proved any doubters wrong in spectacular fashion.

Where other managers might have panicked, Emery remained calm and his belief the team’s form would improve was vindicated, as was his decision to stick with key players through stuttering form. Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins, to name just two, repaid his faith handsomely.

While there were wobbles through the second half of the season, as injuries and poor recruitment threatened to catch up with Villa, Emery did enough to keep them on track, underlining once again why he is, by a distance, the club’s greatest asset.

Off the field

It’s been eventful. September saw a significant change with Roberto Olabe replacing Monchi as president of football operations.

Villa will hope Olabe, one of Emery’s oldest associates in the game, has a rather better hit rate than his predecessor in the transfer market, though the club’s continued battles with financial fair play rules make the task of recruitment chief a far from easy one.

New president of business operations, Francesco Calvo, had a busy first year in the Premier League.

Villa briefly became the focus of every news organisation in the world when the local authorities decided to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from attending November’s Europa League group stage fixture.

More recently, the club confirmed plans to accelerate the redevelopment of the North Stand, with Villa Park becoming a three-sided stadium for the whole of the 2026-27 season.

Ticket prices, meanwhile, remain a bone of contention. Villa have confirmed they are again going up for five per cent, with the most expensive now nearly £1,000.

For Calvo, the immediate challenge is finding a sponsor to replace Betano. The latter can no longer feature on the front of Villa’s shirts due to new Premier League rules around gambling advertising.

What’s next?

According to chairman Nassef Sawiris, the sky remains the limit.

There are certainly reasons for Villa supporters to believe Europa League glory was only the start.

Along with Arsenal, they currently appear the most stable of the regular top-four contenders.

The trouble remains the financial fair play rules, which provide an advantage to rivals with bigger revenues, while shackling Villa’s spending power.

It means they have no option but to consider selling Morgan Rogers, should a substantial offer be forthcoming.

The midfielder’s future will dominate the summer but regardless of what happens, Villa simply have to improve their strike rate on new signings.

A strong window would leave them well placed to push on even higher. A repeat of last summer’s chaos, however, would leave them vulnerable heading into a season when the demands of juggling Premier League and Champions League goals will be considerable.