🦁 PL Previews: Can Aston Villa gatecrash the top six? | OneFootball

The 2022/23 campaign was a tale of two seasons for Aston Villa, with the club looking over their shoulder at the spectre of relegation when they sacked Steven Gerrard in October before finishing the season with Europa Conference League qualification under Unai Emery.

The Villans are going into their first full season under the Spaniard, but can they build on their form in the second-half of the last campaign and crash the top six?

See all of our club previews right here.

Transfers 🔁

In: Moussa Diaby (Bayer Leverkusen, £51.9m), Pau Torres (Villarreal, £33m), Youri Tielemans (Leicester City, free)

Out: Marvelous Nakamba (Luton Town, £4m), Wesley (Stoke City, undisclosed), Ashley Young (Everton, free), Morgan Sanson (Nice, loan), Viljami Sinisalo (Exeter, loan), Louis Barry (Stockport, loan), Jed Steer (released)

Transfer balance: -£89.9m

Key fixtures 📆

🔑 Key player: Ollie Watkins

One of the most successful aspects of Aston Villa’s summer will be managing to keep hold of Watkins.

The 27-year-old could be the source of interest from Tottenham Hotspur if Harry Kane does leave the club and you can see why they’d be interested in him.

Watkins is, put simply, a nuisance for opposition defenders.

He never stops running, constantly hassling and harrying his markers, and his desire to run into channels takes defenders into areas of the pitch they don’t want to be.

The arrival of Emery moved Watkins’ game up to another level, with the striker ending last season with 15 goals and six assists.

With Euro 2024 on the horizon, this could be a huge season for Villa’s main man.

What has changed since last season? 🤔

Emery’s arrival in October changed everything. Villa went from two wins in 11 games under Gerrard to collecting 15 victories in 27 to ensure there will be European football at Villa Park for the first time since 2011.

There is optimism in Birmingham heading into the new campaign and on the surface it isn’t misplaced.

The arrivals of Pau Torres and Moussa Diaby has added real quality to an already talented squad and there is real depth for Emery to choose from with the likes of Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey and Youri Tielemans potentially on the fringes of the starting 11.

Add that to the fact that none of their main men have departed this summer then Villa have a gluttony of options at their disposal.

And with the man in the dugout there can be excitement amongst the Villa supporters that there could even be silverware heading their way this season.

Emery is a master in Europe having lifted the Europa League three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal. Don’t be surprised to them reach the latter stages of the Conference League.

Predicted XI 🔮

(4-2-2-2) — Martínez; Cash, Torres, Mings, Moreno; Kamara, Luiz; McGinn, Buendia; Diaby, Watkins

Where will they finish? 🏆

Premier League: 8th

Europa Conference League: Semi-finalists

FA Cup: Fourth round

EFL Cup: Fourth round

See all of our club previews right here.