It’s been a gruelling season for Aston Villa, and as we enter the final stretch, the players are having to dig incredibly deep to try and finish strongly.
Injuries have ravaged Unai Emery’s squad across the course of the campaign. Both Emiliano Buendia and Tyrone Mings were lost for the year in the opening week, while Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey have since joined them in being long-term absentees.
READ MORE: Emery hints at potential, crucial Villa injury boost
Practically every player in our first-team squad has been ruled out due to injury at some point this season, and with Villa on course to play over 50 games across all competitions, that has evidently taken its toll on those who have battled through an exhausting workload.
While this season can still end with an incredible achievement, it feels as though the Villa squad is running out of stream at a crunch point, and that was never more obvious than in our performance against Brighton where there were tired legs across the pitch.
Whether it was a misplaced place, a heavy first touch or just lapses in concentration that we weren’t guilty of making earlier in the campaign, these Villa players are putting everything they have left into these last few games, which will determine how successful the season is, but it’s certainly a struggle for them.
It’s hoped that we still have something in reserve and can go through the gears in these last handful of outings, starting with our trip to Greece on Thursday as we look to overturn a 4-2 deficit to Olympiacos in our Europa Conference League semi-final tie.
A pivotal factor in our ability to do that is Emery’s mentality and approach, as the Villa boss refuses to use it as an excuse, even when prompted by reporters or supported by his peers in their assessment of games against us.
Brighton coach Roberto De Zerbi explicitly noted that in his comments after our defeat on Sunday.
“To be honest, this was not Villa today,” he told reporters. “I can understand it because they are competing in the Conference League and have a lot of injuries. And because of that, they couldn’t be the Aston Villa of usual.”
As for Emery, not only did he continue to dismiss questioning about injuries and using that as a potential excuse, he reiterated the focus is on rest and preparing for the next match, while batting away any negativity surrounding his players and our form, as per the video of his Sky Sports interview below.
“Maybe. Perhaps. It is not an excuse for us [being tired]. Today we lost and we didn’t deserve more. We competed and we were focused trying to compete and stop them. They made more chances than us,” he told the media at his post-match press conference.
“Now the most important thing is to recover. When you are playing lots of matches then there is more risk to get players injured. Like today Morgan.
“Overall we are being positive. We can proud of the players and the club. The most important thing now is to rest. Do we think about Thursday? No, it is to rest.”
This has been a remarkable season for Villa. Yes, it’s frustrating and disappointing that after all our hard work this year, we face the threat of elimination from the Europa Conference League this week while we’ll have to potentially rely on results elsewhere to see us secure fourth place and Champions League football.
The standards have been raised so high that when we don’t perform and reach that level, it is a disappointment and there’s annoyance that we’re not playing to the best of our ability.
Nevertheless, it’s important not to lose sight of how far we’ve come this year in terms of progression and development under Emery, and that this group of players is still learning and improving with experience, all without a whole host of players who were fundamental to us last season.
It’s going to take a huge effort this week to reach the Europa Conference League final and perhaps beat Liverpool to end the race for fourth, but hopefully we’ve still got that magic left in the tank and we can finish with a flourish. And that would most certainly stem from the winning mentality and culture that Emery is building at Villa.
🗣️ "I only want to listen to positive things"
Unai Emery shares his thoughts after Aston Villa's defeat at Brighton and says his players have had a fantastic season 💪 pic.twitter.com/cHqDWtxIQI
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 5, 2024