The international calendar has given Aston Villa an unusual trade-off. AFCON will not take Nicolas Jackson and Ibrahim Mbaye away in the middle of the season, but its qualifying schedule interrupts a team still learning how to play together. At the same time, Jackson’s workload is growing, Brian Madjo’s absence has quietly removed an important alternative, and Boubacar Kamara’s numbers suggest his role is changing. For Unai Emery, the next few months may be as much about pres

Villa’s first league win of the season brought more than three points. João Gomes gave Unai Emery the midfield platform he has been searching for, Johan Manzambi connected with Nicolas Jackson, and a subtle half-time change helped turn an encouraging first half into Villa’s most convincing attacking spell of the season. Tottenham’s late goals made the ending uncomfortable, but for much of the afternoon there were signs that a dramatically rebuilt Villa side is beginning to un

Villa finally won, Tammy Abraham scored twice and Ibrahim Mbaye looked increasingly part of the first-team conversation. Those were valuable outcomes after a difficult opening month. The football was less reassuring. Two goals came from corners, Coventry repeatedly found spaces through Villa’s midfield and some of the players given an opportunity produced performances considerably weaker than their numbers suggest. The most interesting part of the night came later, when the i

Two injuries in the same afternoon have taken away rather more than two names from Unai Emery’s team. Pau Torres and Ian Maatsen were becoming central to how Villa moved the ball from defence into attack. With Coventry and Tottenham arriving before an unusually long international break, Emery now has to find replacements for their functions as well as their positions. By Nico Valenti The final half-hour against Nottingham Forest offered a rather exaggerated picture of what Vi

Pau Torres lasted 25 minutes, Nicolas Jackson only 45 and Ian Maatsen’s afternoon ended with Villa unable to replace him. Somewhere in between, Alysson scored Villa’s first league goal of the season and Ibrahim Mbaye and Johan Manzambi offered a first glimpse of what the rebuilt side might eventually become. Forest deserved their win, but this was an afternoon when almost every decision Emery made was followed by a problem. By Nico Valenti There was a point, shortly after Al

Three goals in Bruges offered the first proper glimpse of what Villa might become with Jackson leading a quicker attack. Forest should make them work rather harder for the space. By Nico Valenti For all the relief that came with three goals in Bruges, the most interesting number was probably 36 per cent. Villa had less of the ball than Club Brugge and looked more dangerous with it than they had at any point this season. That suited Nicolas Jackson. It suited João Gomes too. P

Villa arrived in Bruges without a league goal and scored three times before half-time. It was not quite the attacking transformation the scoreline suggests. After weeks spent trying to prise open crowded defences, Emery finally found an opponent willing to leave some pitch behind them. By Nico Valenti For three games Villa have been trying to work out what to do with the ball. At Brighton the structure collapsed around it, at Arsenal there was too little attacking support onc

Villa arrive in Belgium still waiting for their first league goal, but the trip to Brugge presents a very different tactical problem from Hull. Club Brugge want the ball, commit players forward and leave spaces that Hull spent Saturday protecting. For Unai Emery, that opens up choices: stick with the side that has restored control, or begin introducing the pace and carrying ability recruited to make that control more dangerous. By Nico Valenti The temptation after Hull is to

Villa’s first point of the season came from a performance that was calmer, cleaner and considerably more controlled than anything they produced at Brighton. They also had nearly three-quarters of the ball and managed one shot on target. Hull showed how far Emery has already taken the rebuild back towards order, and how much work remains once Villa reach the part of the pitch where order is no longer enough. By Nico Valenti For long stretches at Hull, Aston Villa had the game

Villa looked far more like an Unai Emery team than they had at Brighton. The distances were tighter, Arsenal were denied the freedom they enjoyed on opening weekend and two debutants offered an early glimpse of where the rebuild may be heading. Bukayo Saka still found the one opening Arsenal needed, while another game without a shot on target exposed the part of Villa’s reconstruction that remains least developed. By Nico Valenti The most revealing thing about Unai Emery’s te

By Jake Carter Taylor Harwood-Bellis comes into Aston Villa with a difficult job. Ezri Konsa gave Unai Emery far more than reliability at centre-back, so replacing him will depend on what Harwood-Bellis can reproduce, what he can add and how Villa cover the areas where the two are different. Replacing Ezri Konsa was never going to be a case of finding another right-sided centre-back and carrying on as before. He started 34 Premier League games last season and had become one o

Arsenal arrive at Villa Park with a settled structure and an opening win already behind them. Villa come into the game after a 4-0 defeat at Brighton and with several of the players expected to define their season still finding their place. For Unai Emery, the challenge is not to reinvent the team in one night, but to decide which parts of the rebuild can already help against an opponent whose strengths are unusually clear. By Nico Valenti Villa’s first ten minutes at Brighto

Aston Villa have reached an agreement in principle for Ibrahim Mbaye, an 18-year-old winger developed inside Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain. His age makes the transfer look like another investment in the future, but his profile says rather more about the present: Villa are assembling an attack capable of stretching the pitch, accelerating earlier and reaching goal through several different routes. By Nico Valenti Ibrahim Mbaye is an interesting player to spend close to £5

An opening-day 4-0 defeat invites sweeping conclusions. Villa’s afternoon at Brighton was more useful when pulled apart: some of the damage came from individual mistakes, but the spaces around them exposed a team caught awkwardly between the one Unai Emery had and the one he is still trying to build. By Nico Valenti There was a strange contrast between Aston Villa’s first ten minutes at Brighton and almost everything that followed. Emiliano Buendía, pressed into service as th

At 31, after eight years at Bayern Munich, Leon Goretzka looks very different from the younger midfielders Villa have added this summer. That may be exactly why the move makes sense. By Nico Valenti Villa’s midfield rebuild had been moving in one direction. Johan Manzambi arrived at 20, João Gomes at 25, while Boubacar Kamara is returning to the centre of the side after injury. Much of the summer has been about reducing age, adding athleticism and rebuilding the areas vacated

By Nico Valenti Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s arrival at Aston Villa, two days after Matteo Ruggeri completed his move from Atlético Madrid, gives Unai Emery something he has not always possessed at full-back: genuinely different ways of constructing the same team. Wan-Bissaka has joined from West Ham on an initial season-long loan which becomes permanent if agreed conditions are met. Ruggeri, 24, arrived earlier in the week after one season with Atlético. Place them alongside Matty Ca

By Jake Carter Aston Villa are entering a new phase in goal. Zion Suzuki is joining from Parma in a deal worth around £30 million, giving Villa a 23-year-old goalkeeper who has already established himself in Serie A and with Japan. His arrival is one of the clearest signs yet that the club are planning beyond Emiliano Martínez, who has been Villa’s No.1 for six years and one of the most important players of their recent rise. The change, however, is not happening as cleanly a

By Nico Valenti With Lucas Digne expected to leave and the Pervis Estupiñán move having stalled, Aston Villa have turned towards Matteo Ruggeri. The Italian is not the most spectacular full-back on the market, but his education at Atalanta and Atlético Madrid offers Unai Emery something increasingly valuable: a left-sided defender who can change his position without impacting the balance of the team. Matteo Ruggeri is an interesting answer to a question Aston Villa appeared,

By Jake Carter Johan Manzambi looks like the natural successor to Morgan Rogers, but the departure of Youri Tielemans changes the context of Aston Villa’s midfield rebuild. His value could lie not in replacing either player directly, but in occupying the tactical space between them. Manzambi arrived from Freiburg on 17 July, four days before Rogers completed his move to Chelsea. Both can receive in advanced midfield areas, turn towards goal and carry Villa up the pitch. The

By Nico Valenti Villa expected to spend the first half of the season waiting for Brian Madjo. A successful appeal, four pre-season goals and a summer spent increasingly close to Unai Emery’s senior group have changed the timetable rather more quickly than anyone expected. Brian Madjo has spent much of the summer in an unusual position. He has been around Aston Villa’s first team often enough to stop feeling like an academy player, scored often enough to make people curious, y