Aston Villa

Nicola Pearson
BBC Sport journalist

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against Wolves at Villa Park (kick-off 14:05 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Emery confirmed that defender Tyrone Mings remains unavailable and will be out for "more or less, one month more". However, other players are "recovering" from Thursday's win and there are "hopefully no problems" for Sunday.

• He said they are feeling Villa Park "is our fortress with our supporters" after a run of good home form: "They are transmitting us the energy, their support, and they are transmitting as well good feelings to get together this form. And then as well, it's how the players are responding at home with our supporters, trying to get their best."

• He added: "Our poor start, we forget it completely, because now we are feeling like we were planning at the beginning of the season. We try to compete, to compete against the better teams, not to be contenders to be in top seven, but competing like we are doing now. We can feel comfortable, we can feel strong, and then we can feel demanding to keep it."

• Emery said he wants to be "adding more minutes" for some players while still "performing in the same structure" to help their progress, adding: "This is the standard we are trying to set. We are high in our demands, and every player is understanding, adapting and getting fit as well. After some players were injured, their comeback is very good."

• The Villa boss is "not feeling favourites" for this match against bottom-of-the-table Wolves: "With the new coach, they're going to be motivated and excited. They now have the necessity to get good in competitive way. They are going to try to do [this] on Sunday, - and the coach knows us and he's going to use this to try to get the points."

• More on facing new Wolves boss Rob Edwards: "My respect is massive. First, because our experiences against Wolves in the Premier League was always very difficult. Even winning last year was difficult, [and] two years ago, and they always perform very well here. We can feel how difficult it's been playing against every team, and with Wolves being in the moment they are, they will need to compete and to try to start getting more points."

Listen to BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra commentary of Aston Villa v Wolves at 14:05 on Sunday on BBC Sounds

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

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We asked for your views on Aston Villa's victory over Young Boys in the Europa League on Thursday.

Here are some of your comments:

Tony: Very impressive until the substitutions, then it all looked a bit clunky, but the wins keep coming. Really not seeing what Guessand or Sancho are bringing, other than a lack of creativity or quality.

Dave: A really comfortable, commanding performance and we could and should have been 4-0 up when we made our changes and it was those changes that seemed to disrupt our flow. But, despite still having the stereotypical Villa way of turning comfortable games into nervy endings, we're joint top in the Europa League, have started to be able to rotate a little more comfortably and look forward to 'welcoming' Wolves on Sunday. This could be a very exciting festive period for us.

Ryan: We keep on winning even when we don't play that well - the sign of a good team. Would be nice to not have to sweat, but if we can start to build the form together we'll be able to beat anyone. Really positive with the depth we're now building up.

Ian: It was a good win for Villa but we still struggled against a team when we should have won better than just the 2-1 - should have been at least 5-1.

Craig: Villa needed to be more clinical and ruthless with such a dominant first half. A trait that Emery needs to be very wary of, as teams better than Young Boys will definitely take unjust advantage of.

Phil: Big difference between first XI and second string. We give the ball away too much for a team trying to win trophies.

Prit: Most importantly, Villa won and take three points. Malen scored two well-taken goals, but it has to be said this match should have been a lot more comfortable and we left a lot of goals out there. We need a clinical striker who will take their chances. Unai needs to use his magic and find someone because we simply do not score enough goals. If we are broke, we could do worse than bringing back Louie Barry from his loan and giving him a chance.

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Stoke are in the hunt to sign Louie Barry on loan next month with Aston Villa planning to recall him from Sheffield United.

The midfielder has not played for the Blades since October and Villa will bring him back and immediately send him back out on loan in January.

Promotion-chasing Stoke, second in the Championship, are among a host of interested clubs which include Derby, Hull and Oxford.

Barry spent the second half of last season on loan at Hull - after a successful 16-goal loan spell in League One with Stockport - but it was cut short by a knee injury and he made just four appearances.

The 22-year-old has been struggling with a cyst in his right knee and has returned to Bodymoor for treatment.

He is expected back at Bramall Lane next month and is due to be available for the Blades' final games of the year but it remains unlikely he will play.

He started the season well under Ruben Selles but United lost their opening five games before Selles was sacked and replaced by the returning Chris Wilder.

Barry made nine appearances for the Blades but has started just once under Wilder, in a 1-0 win over Watford in October, while his knee issue forced him to miss Sunday's derby win at Sheffield Wednesday.

Gary Rose
BBC Sport journalist

Image source, Getty Images

After their early-season struggles, Aston Villa are now riding high in both in Europe and the Premier League, with victory over Leeds at the weekend putting them fourth in the table.

They have now won 10 of their last 12 games and their upturn in form has also coincided with an impressive run from Donyell Malen as well.

Since the start of November, the 26-year-old has scored five goals in six appearances for club and country, and Young Boys could not cope with him on Thursday.

He and Morgan Rogers enjoyed an impressive partnership, with the latter reading Malen's runs well and he could easily have had a treble, but boss Unai Emery wisely withdrew him midway through the second period with Villa, at that point, in control.

Malen's form also takes the pressure and spotlight off Ollie Watkins, whose difficult individual season continues as he was unable to add to his one goal in this campaign when he came on for the final 30 minutes, although did see a decent shot saved.

The hosts were far less effective in the final third after Malen and Rogers were withdrawn, and the finale not as comfortable as it perhaps should have been.

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery on his side's 2-1 victory against Young Boys in the Europa League: "The team was very focused in the match. My first analysis is that we were consistent, but when we were winning 2-0 we did not use our opportunities to score a third.

"We know we need the goal advantage to be in the top eight in the Europa League. We relaxed a little bit in the second half.

"A team like Young Boys, with experienced players and experienced in Europe, could score one goal like they did and then you can get in trouble. We must be learning in our process to try to avoid the moment in the future like we had today.

"We have to try to get the balance - how we are managing the competitions and how we manage the match.

"We did the analysis this morning and tried to get our gameplan. The first moment for the players was very good but we must be more demanding in some moments. We were relaxing maybe a little bit.

"Today, we did one step forward overall."

On Donyell Malen after he was hit by a plastic cup: "I think he is OK."

On his performance: "One month ago, he demanded that I changed him because he was tired. Progressively he has been getting fit. He is getting numbers, which is fantastic. He is really performing well. Now, keep going."

Hear more from Emery on BBC Sounds

Did you know?

• Across the past three major European campaigns (since the start of 2023-24), Villa have won more home games than any other side (P15 W13 D1 L1).

• Young Boys scored with their only shot on target of the game after 89:44.

Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned.

Have your say on Aston Villa's performance

Come back on Friday for a selection of your replies

Aston Villa make seven changes to the side that won at Leeds at the weekend.

Victor Lindelof, Ian Maatsen, Lamare Bogarde, Amadou Onana, Jadon Sancho, Evann Guessand and Donyell Malen all come into the team.

John McGinn is named among the substitutes so Youri Tielemans captains the side.

Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Lindelof, Bogarde, Torres, Maatsen, Tielemans, Onana, Guessand, Rogers, Sancho, Malen.

Subs: Bizot, Oakley, Cash, Konsa, Barkley, McGinn, Garcia, Kamara, Digne, Elliott, Buendia, Watkins.

There's four changes for Young Boys as Dominik Pech comes in for the suspended Armin Gigovic, while there are also starts for Sergio Córdova, Darian Males and Tanguy Zoukrou.

Top scorer Chris Bedia is on the bench.

Young Boys XI: Keller, Zoukrou, Lauper, Benito, Janko, Raveloson, Pech, Hadjam, Males, Fassnacht, Cordova.

Subs: Lindner, Marzino, Andrews, Wuthrich, Virginius, Sanches, Tsimba, Bedia, Luthi, Smith, Monteiro, Rufener.

There are 36 games in the Europa League and Conference League on Thursday, including three involving Premier League clubs, and BBC Sport will bring you every moment.

• Europa League: Aston Villa v Young Boys (17:45)

• Europa League: Nottingham Forest v Malmo

• Conference League: Strasbourg v Crystal Palace

Kick-off times 20:00 GMT unless stated

Follow all of the action and reaction here

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The extra games that a European campaign provides can often hinder a team's league form.

With less time to recover from fatigue and the long travel involved for some away matches, performances can often slip when the Premier League rolls around - but perhaps Aston Villa defender Pau Torres thinks differently.

Speaking in a news conference before Thursday's match against Young Boys, the Spainard said: "We have been working well since we had [the poor form] at the beginning of the season. Europe helped us a lot in those moments, particularly Feyenoord away and Bologna at home.

"We felt strong again when we played well [in those games]. The Europa League can help us this season.

He was also asked about why their defensive record has improved recently: "It's not just the back four - it's work that involves every player in our team. We have a good defensive structure and everyone wants to recover the ball when we don't have it.

"We also have two very good goalkeepers; Marco Bizot helped us a lot at the start of the season and we have the best [version] of Emi [Martinez] with us."

Full commentary of Aston Villa v Young Boys on BBC Radio WM's FM frequencies from 17:45 GMT on Thursday.

Nat Hayward
BBC Sport journalist

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has been speaking to the media before Thursday's Europa League game against Young Boys at Villa Park (17:45 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Emery provided a fitness update on his squad: "The only player out is Tyrone Mings. The other players are in the squad for tomorrow. We will have a meeting in the morning and analyse each individual situation about us and the opponent. We will decide [who plays] through it."

• Amadou Onana and Andres Garcia have trained and are available for the visit of Young Boys.

• Asked if Harvey Elliott has a future at Villa, Emery said: "We now have a lot of matches. We must focus on each match with the players we have now. We are not thinking about the transfer window in January. He is one of our players and hopefully he can help us. Then, we are going to decide."

• What can Elliott do to feature more?: "Firstly, there are other players performing very well. This is the first argument of why he is not playing. He is training very well every day."

• On the recent improvement in results: "It's everything. The good results come with confidence and how we react inside. In the moment we were not performing well and were not together. It starts with me, and the players following and sharing the message."

• Emery said European competition helped after a difficult start in the Premier League: "We used the Europa League as a key moment to react, to get momentum with the results. Everything we changed we did collectively."

• The manager said Donyell Malen's fine form has come because he is "very motivated" and "playing like he's training". Emery added: "Everything he's achieving now you can see it before in the training session. He is helping the team in the structure we have, tactically to do our tasks. He is very important for us."

• On his side's resilience, Emery said: "You have to feel it, when you are struggling you have to be resilient. We still have work to do building the team, some players joining us need more time and some are not playing, they need to feel comfortable with us. But we are getting results through the commitment of the players."

Hear more from Emery on BBC Sounds

Follow all of Wednesday's European news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott can be forgiven for wondering if they made the right decision to join Aston Villa.

A loan move was the chance for Sancho to reignite a stuttering career with his future at Manchester United over.

Sancho's contract at Old Trafford expires at the end of the season, signalling he is likely to have played his last game for United, but his time at Villa has so far failed to fire.

He has just 168 Premier League minutes this season, following his 22-minute cameo in the 2-1 win at Leeds United on Sunday, having started two Europa League games and once in the Carabao Cup.

Thursday's visit of Young Boys in the Europa League represents a chance for another start, but the 25-year-old's career is now drifting.

Elliott arrived on loan from Liverpool, with an obligation to buy for £35m, having been named player of the tournament as England Under-21s won Euro 2025.

He has not played in the Premier League for over two months and when he did make his only start - against Fulham in September - he was hauled off at half-time.

The midfielder has not been included in Villa's past four Premier League squads and 18-year-old academy prospect George Hemmings was on the bench at Leeds ahead of him.

The deal will, reportedly, be made permanent if Elliott makes 10 appearances so the question would be why he or the club would want to commit to a move which does not look like it is working.

Having played five times for Villa and twice for Liverpool this season, the only avenue elsewhere for Elliott would be to move to an overlapping league - which starts later - like the MLS, which would allow him to represent three clubs in one campaign.

He would have no option to play for another Premier League or European side this term.

But both loan deals - United sources say 80% of Sancho's wages will be covered by Villa, while also included are easily achievable bonuses that would take the total up to 100%. - are looking like expensive mistakes for everyone.

Mike Taylor
BBC Radio WM reporter

Image source, Getty Images

"I've tried a bit in training, probably not as much as I should…" said Morgan Rogers after his free-kick left Leeds frozen like a spot-the-ball photograph. "Coach Austin [McPhee]'s always banging on at me to try more, to keep doing it after training so yeah, I'm gonna keep going."

Good grief. Imagine how good he will be when he really gets the hang of it.

That's nine wins from 11 now putting Aston Villa in a Champions League qualifying place and into a top-eight slot in the Europa League table, on course for their overall targets for this season.

During the early weeks of the campaign, the results maybe lagged a little behind some of the performances. Now it is the other way round - a positive sign.

While winning, Villa collectively seem to be working towards something this season rather than already being at their full potential. The thrashing of Bournemouth excepted, it still feels like there is more to add. Like Rogers, imagine how good they will all be when they really get the hang of it.

Unai Emery seldom talks of his team reaching a standard, but rather as if they are on some eternal journey of progression.

"Last month we achieved very good wins against Tottenham, Manchester City and Bournemouth," he said on Sunday. "But how we were coming back after the break was our challenge before the match and how the players were again getting our standard higher than at the beginning of the season."

Onwards, to two fixtures which on all known evidence appear among the least taxing of the season. Villa played the Swiss side Young Boys last year in the Champions League and, after adjusting to the artificial pitch in Bern, won comfortably. Sunday against Wolves may be a derby, but one against opponents at their lowest ebb in years.

Both matches look straightforward, but so did the Go Ahead Eagles game, one of Villa's few recent mishaps. The memory of Emery's face at the end of that match ought to be motivation enough for the players to avoid tripping up again.

Listen to full commentary of Aston Villa v Young Boys at 17:45 GMT on Thursday on BBC Radio WM's FM frequencies.

And tune into The West Midlands Football Phone-In from 18:00 on weeknights

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Everton boss David Moyes wants to hang on to English midfielder James Garner amid interest from Aston Villa, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest in the 24-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season. (Talksport)

Want more transfer stories? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

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Hannah Gowen
Fan writer

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Five games into the Premier League season, Aston Villa sat in the relegation places with just three points on the board, having scored just one goal and failing to win any of their opening fixtures. Cut to the end of game week twelve, Villa have entered the top four, rising to the Champions League qualification spots after a gritty win against Leeds United.

This rejuvenation of form has consisted of a variety of results - big wins against Champions League rivals, narrow victories over relegation candidates, and a couple of disappointing losses on the road. One crucial thing that Unai Emery has managed to implement at Villa is the ability to win games even when performances have been suboptimal.

In years gone by, many an Aston Villa side would have capitulated at a raucous away game against a newly promoted side. Yet, a moment of quality from Morgan Rogers on Sunday made Villa just the second team to take all three points at Elland Road in around 25 games.

The start of the season may have been disappointing, but the league position now reflects a resilience in the Villa camp. At a time when Villa's only dedicated striker is suffering from a goal drought, and the club are ranking near bottom for several creative stats, the team has stepped up and conjured goals from across the park, including an influx from outside the penalty area.

Winning in the Premier League is always difficult, and Villa have certainly had their fair share of tricky moments already this season, but Emery and his team are finding ways to do it. Sometimes it is more clinical and polished than others. Other times, it takes one moment of class and the ability to weather the storm in order to pick up points.

While Villa continue to churn out results, in one way or another, they seem to be going under the radar, quietly creeping up the table.

Find more from Hannah Gowen at UTV, external

Match of the Day pundit and former England goalkeeper Joe Hart looks at the free-kick style of Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers.

Watch Match of the Day highlights from Sunday's victory here