Ross Barkley: Any pain from Aston Villa rebuild will be worth it in the end

Ross Barkley is confident Villa will be battling it out at the top end of the Premier League come the second half of the season after hailing their “unbelievable” new recruits.

Unai Emery’s men head to Newcastle on Saturday looking to follow up Wednesday’s stunning 6-0 Champions League thrashing of Fenerbahce.

Summer signing Nicolas Jackson led the way with a first half double as Villa racked up their biggest-ever win in European competition.

Fellow new boy Johan Manzambi opened the scoring, with 18-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye also impressing as he became the club’s youngest-ever player in Europe.

Villa have won just one of their first six Premier League matches but Barkley, who himself bagged a second half brace, believes that form will soon change.

“Even if you start slow, you are still building with new players,” he said.

“There were 10 new additions. We have a new keeper and he is learning the way too.

“Sometimes it will be a bit of a slow process but it will be worth it in the end.

“In the second half of the season, last year we went on a great run and built that momentum.

“Hopefully we can do that now. It is just the process.

“We started slow but we can build as we are doing now, grow and I believe we will be high up the table toward the last third of the season.”

Villa finished fourth last season and won the Europa League before seeing several key players, including Ollie Watkins, Emi Martinez and Morgan Rogers depart.

But Barkley, now in his third season at the club, believes the new-look side are improving with each game.

He explained: “The way to gel is on the training pitch with the manager, the repetition of the way we play and the younger lads learning what we want.

“They gave that on Wednesday, the younger lads who came into the team and the more senior players. It’s exciting.”