The Real Enemy Wrecking Aston Villa’s Season

Trai Hume of Sunderland tackles Lucas Digne of Aston Villa during the Premier League match between Sunderland and Aston Villa at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, England, on September 20, 2025. (Photo by Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

NurPhoto via Getty Images

As starts to the season go, Aston Villa’s has been about as rotten as it gets.

Languishing in 18th position in the table, the club has picked up a mere three points and scored only a solitary goal in the first five games.

That strike came in a 1-1 draw with newly promoted Sunderland, who managed to win a point against the Birmingham side despite playing with a man less for an hour and trailing the match.

Unai Emery isn’t especially known for being overly sentimental about his players; his blunt style sometimes comes across quite brutal. But even for him, his postgame assessment was harsh.

“We were lazy sometimes in defence. For example, when we conceded, we were lazy,” he raged.

“I watched the goal we conceded and we were lazy. But all the team — not the centre-back or Cash — we were lazy.”

“When we are playing here, we have to fight in the duels and we were not fighting in all duels.”

“We are disappointed not because of the result but how (we played), we need to work to recover our identity and the style we want to be. We need to recover some confidence.”

Emery is a coach whose success has been built on a clear, rigid structure, so hearing his dismay at the porous nature of his team’s play was concerning.

“We were conceding a lot of chances,” he added, “chances starting with their goalkeeper, long balls, second action, throw-in, corner, in our box because we were not dominating control of the game with one player more. We were not doing it.”

His words were reminiscent of statements earlier in the season in which he suggested that the atmosphere around the team was not good.

“We started badly the first three matches [of the season],” he said after the 0-3 loss to Crystal Palace, “but we have to be together. In the good moments, we were enjoying it, we were happy. Now, of course, we are frustrated, we are sad for our supporters, but we have to accept it.”

“The results are the consequences of how you are performing, collectively and individually. Now we are trying to get everything with the idea to try and build a team as soon as possible with the new players.”

Villa’s slump has left outside commentators scratching their heads: How could a team that narrowly missed out on Champions League soccer on such an encouraging upward trajectory suddenly falter like this?

“There’s nothing wrong with the quality of the players, you can see it with your eyes. They have quality, but the balance is all wrong, the tactics aren’t working at all,” said pundit Troy Deeney.

“The team balance is really poor and the tactics are just not working because of that.”

“They seriously need to get their act together. From what I’ve seen, they won’t just not be pushing Europe — they’ll be in a relegation battle, it’s all a big mess.”

The contrast to the past couple of seasons couldn’t be more dramatic. Last year, they electrified the Champions, beating Bayern Munich at home on a run that was unluckily ended in a 4-5 quarterfinal defeat to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.

Rewind the clock another 12 months, and things were even more exciting. The team topped the table after a brilliant run of form, during which they beat Manchester City and Arsenal in the space of a week.

A year ago, they had two forwards, Jhon Duran and Ollie Watkins, who were in sparkling form and the envy of most of the Premier League, if not Europe.

Even when Duran suddenly and brutally departed in the January transfer window, it seemed things were still on the up. The two replacements, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, were improvements, if anything.

Despite impressing in the claret and blue jersey, neither deal was made permanent and over the summer, another of the team’s brightest lights, Jacob Ramsey, was sold to Newcastle United.

Watkins is the one major star who remains, but his form this season has been way off its usual levels.

As pundit Alan Smith pointed out, this could also be attributed to the side’s weak showings.

“I don’t know why Watkins has been so poor,” he mused, “As I’ve said before, the team as a whole is not functioning. They’re not creating. So, that’s going to affect him.

“Once he gets a goal, he’ll be off and running. He’s a very good player.”

Further disruption has come with the exit of sporting director Monchi, a long-time friend and ally of Emery.

But Villa’s sudden worrying plight is no mystery; the club has been battling the financial regulations that are stopping it from growing.

Each year, the limits on the club’s spending to elevate itself to league title challenger are hampered by financial fair play regulations, which prioritise revenue above all other measures of fiscal stability. Debt, for example, is not factored in, and teams can run up mind-bogglingly high loans as long as expenditure and income align.

When the club is forced to sell Douglas Luiz or Jhon Duran to balance the books, we shouldn’t be surprised if they lose their way.

It’s hard enough punching above your weight, but to do that while consistently having to sell a big player makes the game near impossible.

The most frustrating thing about this is that Villa has wealthy owners who could afford to make investments without lumbering the club with financial burdens.

But the rules simply don’t allow that type of approach. These financial fair play rules aren’t about creating a more sustainable game; they protect the status quo.