Aston Villa Life

Aston Villa left Switzerland worthy 3-0 winners over Young Boys in their first appearance in the Champions League, such as it's become. And just like that it's back to the league and an opponent in Wolves who'll likely give us more trouble than Young Boys, especially given they're still looking for their first win of the season; no matter how they're going, it's always a difficult fixture.

Villa lead Young Boys 0-2 at the half in Villa's return to the big stage.

Two solid outings in the first two weeks is the sort of signal we were looking for. And we could quite easily have taken all six points, but for some rust and luck. Or lack thereof. So, the feel-good factor remains and now Villa have a stretch they need to take advantage of.

Having done the double on Arsenal last season, and in doing so ultimately taken the points they needed to finish top, I imagine they're going to be more than a little motivated. So I'm glad this one's at home. Can Villa win? Yes. Are the odds against it? Probably.

First off, most everyone likes to say preseason is meaningless and that the games are just to get minutes in the legs. While both are somewhat true, you actually do want to play 'well' in context. And Villa haven't really so far in America.

What to make of the movement? Seems to me Villa have been boxing smart with Monchi wheeling and dealing and he and Emery getting young players in whom they see potential. They’ve cleared the PSR hurdle and strengthened in depth.

Now that the dust has settled and the links are flying fast and furious, it's probably time to turn our heads to the rumors gaining steam. It's also probably not overly dramatic to say this may well be a crucial summer for Villa's and Emery's project.

Naturally everyone’s looking at transfers right now, who stays, who goes. How do we strengthen within PSR? I’ll get into that in a following post. Just as I will the immense difficulty of simply staying where we are. In the meantime, I just want to savor the moment a little longer. Villa did a big thing. Villa did what the owners said they wanted. They did what the supporters wanted, and they entertained the hell out of us along the way. I'm exhausted, never mind the players.

Down 1-3 to Liverpool, it would’ve been all too easy to quit. Disappointment in the Conference League, a dreary loss to Brighton. Everything looked like it was fizzling out. But Villa had still something to say, and what they said is that the culture has changed. They weren't going quietly into the night.

So here we are, on the brink of elimination in the Conference League and 7 points to the good in 4th with two to play. Villa should've had at least 3 last week, and this is a game they don't really deserve to be chasing like this. But they are, so it's the classic situation where Villa have to come out, force the issue, and open themselves up to the counter from the off.