One point from four
Unai Emery watched Nottingham Forest win at Villa Park on Saturday and cut a forlorn figure on the touchline. Aston Villa have taken one point from their opening four Premier League matches. That point came from a goalless draw at promoted Hull City. Defeats to Brighton, Arsenal and Forest have dropped them into the relegation zone with a point fewer than they held at this stage last season.
It is the fourth time Villa have started a Premier League campaign without winning any of their first four games. The others came in 1992-93, 1997-98 and 2025-26.
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The squad that left
The context does him some favours. Villa won the Europa League and finished fourth last season, then watched the spine of that team leave over the summer. Emery has been asked to rebuild while the results clock keeps running, and the sales hit the areas that made the side work.
Alysson turned in a worked set-piece routine against Forest for Villa’s first league goal of the season, which removes one unwanted record from the conversation. The rest of the afternoon felt flat, on the pitch and in the stands.
Last season is the argument
Emery’s defence rests on 2025-26. Villa did not score until Matchday 5 that season and still finished fourth and lifted a European trophy. The wider history helps him too. Five teams before this season had failed to score in their first four Premier League games. None of them went down, and the lowest any finished was 13th, Sheffield Wednesday in 1994-95.
The difference this time sits in the dressing room rather than the table. Last season’s recovery came from a settled group that already knew how Emery works. This one asks him to teach a new one while sitting in the bottom three, which is the hardest version of the job.
Villa travel to Coventry City in the EFL Cup on Wednesday. Coventry have not taken a point all season.
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