Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2025/26

I think we will be fine when McGinn and Tielemans are back, maybe earlier. Weve gone on several unreal runs under Emery, I reckon he will do it again.

There is definitely a thing where we get better results against better teams and at the moment, those are the 6 pointers for us.

The fa cup game was the derailing of us. Fill the coffers with CL money and the silverware will come.

Hard to see both as possible in the squads current state. Suspect one will become the priority depending on what happens in next few games.

The disappointing thing about the Wolves performance was that it was a continuation of the Leeds game. We don’t seem to be able to learn from past history and have the ability to change things

We knew Utd were coming after us, we knew they'd catch us, but that soft peno and red that basically gifted them the game just adds to a sense if injustice in the league.

We can't spend, they can despite massive debt.

They get soft decisions, we've had ZERO penalties all season

Elliott hasn’t made any contribution to where we are in the league so I’m not bothered about him not playing. With McGinn and Tielemans we need them back and fully match fit, they’re likely to need a couple of games to get to there, hard to see them saving us, the players available now need to do it. I thought with the week between games Emery would have it working by now as he has found a way every other time but it has been disappointing. Hopefully he finds a way against Chelsea. Does Neto miss the game after his 2 yellows today?

We have 5 games to go until big international break - and that includes the 2 Lille games.

Chelsea next, and we get anything from that, then best Chelsea can hope for is to be level at International break.

Utd is next in Prem League and McGinn eas talking about that being return date.

Then West Ham - again might have McGinn at least back.

After that its 3 weeks til we play Forest, and Tielemans should be back by then.

So priority 1, is get something from Chelsea, even a draw. Looking at their disciplinary record I'm guessing about 40 of their players are suspended (Neto at least). After that we go to Old Trafford so any miracle is a bonus.

Priority 2 is to get by Lille - who'll be baying for blood - but Emery knows cup ties better than any. But would be great to Europa League route to Champ League open.

Priority 3 beat West Ham, that'll guarantee we're still in top 5 going into long break, when players can be rested, or reintegrated in Tielamans case.

After that we're into last 7 games of season, hopefully with better midfield in place, so Wednesday is the key. Just don't lose

Depends on the opponent, there's 10 games left, we're 6 ahead of Chelsea. Win on Wednesday and Chelsea are 9 behind with 9 to play, so mathematically that would mean 6 wins would be enough (IF we win) - then Chelsea would need 9 wins to match us.

I can see Utd and Liverpool finishing ahead of us, so Chelsea are the marker

I think Emery was expecting Liverpool might drop the clause in January, but at least now he can play in all the European games. He can play in 5 of the remaining 10 games (obviously Liverpool won’t be one so it’s 5 of 9 really).

Need to make something positive of that loan deal down the stretch or else it’s a really poor mark on the clubs recruitment/planning

I reckon 66 points will get top 5 this season. I know It didn’t guarantee it last season for ye but I think it will this season if ye can manange it

Jersey is sold out already.

Its definitely an Adidas thing though, as Sunderland, Everton and Leeds have near identical stuff

Hard to think of a game since Newcastle away where you could take anything to bring confidence that Villa can win a game of that magnitude.

Emery shown no signs that he has any answers with the current available players. Probably need to hope for a few big swings in the game (and obviously these do happen in football) because it’s hard to imagine the same players just showing up and suddenly being the better team.

I don’t think it’ll be too late. The worst it can look going into the 3 week break is Villa 3 points behind Chelsea. That would require Villa to lose to Chelsea, Man United and West Ham and Chelsea also to beat Newcastle and Everton.

If the reports are correct on McGinn and Tielemans and they’re back, I’d think Villa will be a different animal coming out of the international break. That doesn’t mean it’ll be top 5, because there’s every reason the top teams will be in form, but it shouldn’t be the mess we’ve seen since January where the team just looks lost.