Aston Villa Champions League goals for remainder of season discussed

A look ahead to big things this season for AVFC.

Transcript

00:00Charlie, looking at Aston Villa and the sort of remainder of the season, you know, we can

00:06sort of look back as we are in the midway point now. And I mean, their season could

00:11go a number of ways. If you look at it, they had a fantastic start to their Champions League

00:15life with this obviously new developed format. And, you know, they were obviously top of

00:20the pile in the Champions League for a few weeks, which is quite incredible for them.

00:25How would you sort of look back at the start of their season so far and the best moments,

00:30maybe worst moments as well, a standout player maybe, and then sort of what they can go on

00:35to achieve as we look, you know, the remainder of this campaign?

00:41I think on the whole Villa fans should be very happy with what they've seen this season

00:44because it's been a very bizarre Premier League campaign really. We've seen Manchester City

00:48who looked unbeatable over the last four seasons crumble and fall out of the top four for a

00:53long period of time. Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur in the bottom half, Newcastle struggling

00:58and then having a mad revival, Nottingham Forest, Fulham, Bournemouth, all heading up

01:02into potential Champions League contention. Forest being the main one of those, really

01:06challenging with Arsenal and Liverpool running away with things. Villa being in the top eight

01:11after such a run in mid-January, and then having a potential still of finishing in the

01:16top five, which should be enough for Champions League football this year. You can't really

01:20be complaining with that, can you? And as you alluded to, Champions League success already

01:24on the cards. On the fringes of the top eight, which is what you need out of the 36 clubs

01:30to qualify immediately for the last 16, if they finish between ninth and 24th, they'll

01:35have to play an extra playoff round, which wouldn't be ideal. Two extra matches, it'll

01:39be two legs. Villa are trying to avoid that. Two tough games to go against Monaco and then

01:44at home against Celtic, but four points from those matches should be enough to qualify

01:48for the last eight, and you'd have to say that would be a huge success, especially as

01:52they beat Bayern Munich earlier in the campaign. In terms of Emery and his ambitions, he wants

01:57to carry on in the Champions League with Villa, if possible. That's the main priority. Winning

02:02the Champions League is very unlikely. That's one way of achieving that. The focus is still

02:07on the Premier League. Villa obviously want to progress as far as possible in the Champions

02:11League, and it'd be amazing to get to the quarterfinals, semifinals, but realistically,

02:16they're not going to win the competition. So the focus at the moment remains on the

02:19Premier League, which is understandable.

02:21Just looking at the standout players up to this point, they have a big summer clear out,

02:27they've brought a few big names in as well. Who's been the standout player? Because obviously

02:31John Durant went on that fantastic run. Ollie Watkins maybe hasn't hit the heights that

02:36he did, but had that incredible summer with England with that moment as well.

02:41I think Uri Telemans is one that's gone under the radar a bit. He's played so, so well in

02:45a variety of midfield roles, but Morgan Rodgers has really kicked on. Just £15m after add-ons

02:51from Middlesbrough. Looks well worth the money, of course, a full England international already.

02:56So versatile, so aggressive in attacks, and such a key player for Unai Emery's Villa.