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National World - LocalTV
  • 13/06/2025
Now, under Unai Emery, Aston Villa produced some of the most exciting football seen at Villa Park in years. Big wins against top-six sides and a confident run in Europe showed the club’s growing stature—and their intent to challenge at the top end of the table.
We spoke to Charlie Haffenden of BirminghamWorld to reflect on Aston Villa’s best moments from a season that reignited belief across the fanbase.

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Transcript
00:00Aston Villa produced some of the most exciting football seen at Villa Park in years.
00:09Big wins against top six sides and a confident run in Europe showed the club's growing stature
00:14and their intents to challenge at the top end of the table.
00:18Key players like Holly Watkins and Uri Tielemans delivered consistently, while Villa's home
00:23form became a fortress.
00:26With their incredible Champions League run, this campaign will go down as one of the
00:30most memorable in the club's recent history.
00:34We spoke to Charlie Haffenden of Birmingham World to reflect on Aston Villa's best moments
00:39from a season that reignited belief across the fan base.
00:44Charlie, looking at Aston Villa, and let's start by looking across the season, maybe a
00:50bit of a reflection of a season that promised so much and maybe just fell short at the last
00:55moments, but still some incredible history set with their return to the Champions League
01:00and those incredible nights against Bayern Munich and PSG as well.
01:06Obviously, the season moved so fast and it did end in slight disappointment, but they
01:11will still be competing in Europe next season with high ambitions under Unai Emery, I'm sure.
01:16Let's start with the best moment in terms of Villa season or moments or period because they
01:23had that run where they were sort of unstoppable. Maybe you can touch on the January window as
01:27well. That was remarkable. That took a lot of people by surprise with the signings they got in
01:32and they were going big. So, what sort of stands out as the best moment for Aston Villa fans this season?
01:38I think it's difficult to pick just one, to be honest. The Champions League run was just incredible.
01:44Qualifying for it in the first place was such an achievement. I think even if Villa got
01:48knocked out in that league phase, they wouldn't have been too disappointing. At least they would have
01:52had the opportunity to play within it. Playoffs would have been good enough. Finishing between
01:569th and 24th, but finishing the top eight was just absolutely incredible. And that win over Bayern
02:02Munich at Villa Park towards the start of that run was such an incredible night to remain unbeaten at
02:08Villa Park throughout the entire Champions League campaign. Incredible. Same could be said in the Premier
02:12League as well, apart from the opening, the first home game in the season against Arsenal that they
02:16lost. They were undefeated in every single game at Villa Park, so that's a real achievement. I think
02:21that PSG game, the second leg, even though they went out on aggregate, just a fight to get back into
02:28that game after going 1-0 down so early, to win it 3-2, the atmosphere was absolutely unbelievable.
02:35It's difficult to pick out just one moment, as I say, but the January windows you kind of touched
02:39upon with Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio coming in. These are transfers that fans just wouldn't
02:44have been able to imagine, even a couple of years ago when Unai Emery first came in. So,
02:48really on the rise, so much to be positive about, even if they did miss out on the Champions League
02:53qualification at the end. Yeah, in terms of worst moments, or sort of moments to maybe brush past
03:00and forget, the FA Cup run was fantastic and you maybe thought going into that semi-final against
03:06Crystal Palace that their poor form against Palace wouldn't continue, yet it did. Palace were
03:12incredible on the day and Villa sort of went home thinking, you know, we were possibly dreaming of
03:17lifting the Champions League and if not, then maybe the FA Cup in terms of a trophy this season and
03:22then it slowly, you know, ever so quickly went out the window for them and Unai Emery and then
03:28the attention turns to getting Champions League qualification and they just fall short on the
03:33final day in controversial fashion as well at Old Trafford, but surely maybe looking at the season
03:39and thinking they could have been very much closer to lifting a bit of silverware.
03:44Yeah, I think there's kind of three periods or moments that stand out. There was one period where
03:49Villa kept two clean sheets in 23 matches. Emi Martinez was not in form of that period,
03:54the defence not in form at all. Pau Torres was out for two and a half months with a broken metatarsal,
03:59but then they managed to keep many clean sheets towards the end of the season. They went on such
04:03a great winning streak and they very nearly clinched that Champions League football at the
04:07last moment. I think if you look at 10 games to go in the season, you wouldn't have expected them
04:12to be in the fight for the top five, but they got into that position and if they just managed to get
04:16one point against Manny Nice at Old Trafford, they would have got into it and that is kind of the
04:21second of the three moments I'm talking about is that game at Old Trafford. Such a disappointment.
04:25All they needed to do was their own job because the other results elsewhere ended up going their
04:29way. No silverware, no Champions League, but the fact that they've managed to stay in these races,
04:35they've managed to have decent progression in lots of competitions and been so close,
04:39I think it just shows that Villa are on this trajectory for a long time now and not just briefly.

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