Why Aston Villa's connections can give Unai Emery's team the edge in the race for Champions League qualification
How do Aston Villa have the edge on their rivals in the race for the Champions League? It might be the on-pitch relationships and understanding between their players. Villa manager Unai Emery speaks to Sky Sports' Adam Bate in this exclusive interview...
Tuesday 24 March 2026 20:34, UK
There was a moment during the press conference after Aston Villa’s 4-1 home defeat to Chelsea earlier this month when Unai Emery became unusually animated. “Always our structure was our way to perform and our way to get success,” he pointed out.
When he paused for effect, one reporter attempted to move the conversation on by asking another question. But Emery was not done yet. "We are not here with one player who is always winning matches himself," he continued. "We need our structure."
It helps to explain why Villa suffered such a dip in form recently. It was not just the quality of John McGinn, Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara as individuals that the team was missing, it was the long-established connections that they had on the pitch.
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McGinn's return, scoring in back-to-back victories over Lille and West Ham, has altered the picture again. With Tielemans also back, to the delight of the crowd, Emery's men have momentum once more after a big weekend for their Champions League hopes.
Favourites to win the Europa League, that remains an opportunity not just for silverware but for a return to the continent's elite competition next season. Villa are unlikely to need it. Slip ups elsewhere mean they are five points clear of fifth-placed Liverpool.
Clearly, Villa have some superb football players. But it is worth reflecting on the fact that it is a remarkable achievement to be competing - and often outperforming - better resourced clubs. It is only possible because of those synergy benefits within the squad.
There is a way of quantifying this that helps to illustrate just what an outlier this Villa group is within the context of the Premier League. There are 29 current player pairings that have started 135 games together in the competition. Fourteen play for Aston Villa.
Those connections are all over the pitch. When Emiliano Martinez kicks it long to Ollie Watkins, it is a run that the goalkeeper has been seeking in 189 Premier League starts now. Watkins and McGinn? It is 172 starts and counting together for those pair.
Ezri Konsa has started at least 135 Premier League with six current Villa players. One recalls having a conversation with him as long ago as 2021 about the partnership that he had developed not just with Tyrone Mings but with Matty Cash, the man to his right.
"Before kick-off, I always tell Matty or he will tell me, 'Nobody gets past the right side. It is me and you down this right side. We deal with whatever comes against us.' I just know that if the ball goes over my head, Matty will be there." Both started against West Ham.
There were studies done over two decades ago now about team cohesion and stability and its impact on performance. More recently, machine-learning tools have been able to drill deeper into the detail. Analysis of over 1600 matches suggests there is a link.
For example, successful prior interactions significantly predict future pass success. It makes sense. Movements can be anticipated more easily and become automatic. With other teams moving players on more regularly, it can be an advantage for Aston Villa.
Speaking to Emery about this, he acknowledges that it is a factor in their success. "In football, everything is important, individual skill, individual mentality," he tells Sky Sports. "But, of course, then they must join with the other players and create a strong team."
Tellingly, if that team structure is particularly well drilled, it can even mask an apparent gap in individual quality. "Collectively, we try to create our structure as strong as possible to protect individual weaknesses. That is what we are building here," he adds.
"This is why for the last three years, more or less, we are in the middle of the top seven teams, teams that are always powerful." For Emery, as ever, this is a story of attention to detail, of great focus, of players understanding their tasks, and of demanding more.
"To achieve our objectives facing teams like Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Newcastle, Chelsea, and Liverpool is really fantastic, but it is very, very difficult. The only way we can show it is being more demanding than those teams."
One wonders whether it informs Villa's approach to recruitment too. It is rare for senior players to be sent out on loan and then reintroduced to the team but both Emiliano Buendia and Leon Bailey have returned. Douglas Luiz was sold and then brought back.
Even Tammy Abraham, whose time at Villa predates Emery, was part of the team that won promotion at Wembley seven years ago - alongside McGinn and Mings. Maybe it is just another way to find an edge. "Each one has his circumstances," says Emery.
"Douglas is helping us, adapting quick again with the work we need to do. Leon Bailey is in the same way. Tammy Abraham, his adaptation is going quickly as well. Everything tactically we need, we are working with him on the field, in the meetings with video.
"They are here with us because they deserve to be here, because they want to be here. Leon Bailey and Emiliano Buendia came back because they feel good with the city, the club, the supporters, their teammates… and maybe with the coaches and manager too.
"But their wish to be here is one thing. Another is my demand to get them playing in the necessary way and the necessary structure that we are building. Whether performing well or not performing well, they must always, always be doing their tasks for the team.
"They must understand how we play within our structure, of course, understanding and knowing each other." That takes time in an Emery team, even for those who have played for him before." Of Luiz, he says: "He is trying to understand it quickly. It is a process."
Even a player as gifted as Tielemans had to watch from the sidelines for much of his first season before persuading the coach that he was ready for a bigger role. "He is a good example for the challenges we are going to face with the players joining us," says Emery.
"Youri Tielemans is performing fantastic this year, and performed fantastic last year. But two years ago, when he first arrived here, he was out of matches on the bench. But he was always training, understanding everything that we needed from him tactically."
That process never stops. McGinn and Morgan Rogers had different starting positions in the wins over Lille and West Ham, Emery exploiting their versatility to adapt to the specific demands of those games. It helps that they know each role inside and out.
It is the defining feature of this Aston Villa and it could be decisive in the race for the Champions League. For Emery, the mantra remains the same. "Now our standards are higher, and the players know it. We must try to get our structure stronger… collectively."
