VILLA PARK — If all goes to plan Aston Villa’s season has 16 games left.
Right now though nothing is going to plan for Unai Emery’s side. Talk of a Premier League title push always felt improbable, and now they are bang out of form a top-four spot is quickly slipping from their grasp as well.
Defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday night was deserved. Tight VAR offside calls swayed this match in the first half, and after Ollie Watkins was denied the goal he desperately needed, Cole Palmer got the goal he was utterly craving to seal a valuable three points for the Blues.
Villa remain fourth, three points above both Chelsea and Liverpool, but with nine league games to go momentum is not on their side. One win in six, three wins in 13. Take your pick, either way that is not the form of a Champions League-chasing team.
But worse than any numbers is the mood inside Villa Park. Some fans left after 65 minutes, when Joao Pedro completed his hat-trick, and thereafter those who remained had given up on anger and replaced it with an apathy that mirrored Villa’s leggy players.
Joao Pedro completes the hat-trick and Chelsea are running away with this tie now
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It is no new feeling at Villa Park. That giddy excitement in December, when Villa were pushing Arsenal and Manchester City close after 12 wins in 13, feels like an age ago already, with home defeats in 2026 to Everton, Brentford and now Chelsea proving this place is no longer a fortress.
Now: a decision to make. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, only Manchester City (164), Chelsea (159), Liverpool (156) and Arsenal (155) have played more games, with Villa not far behind (153).
That has made for tired legs, and raises the very real possibility of Villa fighting on two fronts and falling short in both the league and Europa League.
Offer Villa fans one route to the Champions League therefore and surely it is aboard the Ange Postecoglou Express, where the league is sacrificed and the Europa League is prioritised.
Villa are far and above the low levels of Spurs last season (and this one), and yet only one club walked away with an eagerly-awaited trophy.
Add to that Newcastle United and Crystal Palace ending their respective droughts and Villa fans witnessed a handful of clubs get their day in the sun, be it at Wembley or in Bilbao.
Villa’s dream must surely be to make it to Istanbul, where the Europa League final takes place on 20 May. It will take six games to get there and a seventh to win it, and while of course it warrants a gamble to prioritise this over the league – where they still hold the keys for fourth – it is surely worth the risk.
There is only one outcome to the season that will have Villa supporters talking about this campaign in 50 years’ time. They need that night in Istanbul, and though that is walking a greater tight rope, right now the league is not offering them any joy – they simply do not have the form to finish in the top five.
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They don’t have the form to win the Europa League, either, and with Lille to come in the round of 16 and Bologna or Roma should they make the quarters, suddenly a tournament Villa are deemed favourites to win looks a tall order as well.
But maybe focusing on those upcoming Thursdays is what it must be about for Emery. He is sorely missing the midfield trio of John McGinn, Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara – only McGinn and Tielemans will be back this season – and 16 games is too much for this squad to handle.
Focus on the seven that could deliver major silverware after a 30-year wait.
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