Unai Emery can rely on three Aston Villa players to fulfil Champions League dream

Emi Martinez and Amadou Onana will be key to any success Aston Villa enjoy this season
-Credit: (Image: Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)


As last season proved, every player in Unai Emery’s squad has a part to play over the course of the campaign, especially if Aston Villa end up playing more than 50 games again this term.

Villa have a strong spine with the best goalkeeper in the world between the sticks and one of Europe’s top strikers in attack. Despite losing Douglas Luiz for £42m to Juventus, the signing of Amadou Onana was an excellent piece of business, while Pau Torres and Ezri Konsa are both top level centre-backs.

Starting with Emi Martinez, the two-time Copa America champion, World Cup winner and current Yashin Trophy holder will play a key role in any success Villa enjoys this season. His mentality sets him apart from the rest and his leadership qualities are also crucial for Emery, who is building a youthful squad.

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"He is very important for us," Emery said of Martinez. "He has his personality and his personality in the dressing room is very important because he is a leader with all his experiences. He has a really brilliant mentality. Emi as a person is very competitive throughout his career. When he came here to the Premier League 12 years ago, more or less progressively, he was improving a lot. His mentality is really brilliant.

“He always wants to improve individually and collectively with the team. The challenges he is sharing with the club, because I was with him at Arsenal before and I knew he was challenging, always individually and collectively, to win something important.”

Being the best in the world comes with plenty of transfer interest, but Martinez has never considered leaving Villa because for him, this is home. Manchester United tried to sign him last summer before Erik ten Hag pushed for Andre Onana instead. They wouldn’t have had much luck anyway.

“I became the best in the world here, I want to continue developing myself,” the goalkeeper said after signing a new long-term contract in August. “Defending the goal at Villa Park is an excitement. Every time I hear my name in the stadium it gives me goosebumps. I feel the same love here I feel in the national team. So why change?”

Martinez’s dream was to play with Villa in the Champions League and is determined to win a trophy with the club who gave him his chance to play regularly in the Premier League when they signed him from Arsenal in the summer of 2020.

“It’s always possible when you’ve got the manager we have,” Martinez said about going far in the Champions League this season. “He reached the semi-finals of the Champions League with Villarreal, he won four Europa Leagues and he took Villa to the Champions League for the first time.

“It’s going to be new for us but when you’ve got players and managers like that, you can go all the way. I feel that the club is moving forward every year. I have achieved everything as an international for Argentina and I still think that we can win a trophy here. I will have a go in the next five years and see if we can achieve that.”

Martinez has won four titles alongside Lionel Messi with Argentina including his second Copa America back in July.

Before the Champions League draw was made at the end of August, Martinez was asked if there was a club he wanted to face. He responded: “I’m thinking about one in the final.”

Ollie Watkins
Ollie Watkins -Credit:Photo by IAN KINGTON/AFP via Getty Images

At the top of the pitch, Watkins will be relishing the opportunity to prove himself in the Champions League after stealing the worldwide headlines with a late goal for England against the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semi-final back in July.

His 19 Premier League goals fired Villa into the Champions League last season, while he also collected 13 assists - the most of any player in the top-flight. Watkins won’t be resting on his laurels as he has the chance to break the club’s all-time Premier League top scorer record this campaign with Gabby Agbonlahor currently 15 ahead of him, while also facing the prospect of leading Villa’s push for a historic run in UEFA’s elite club competition.

“He’s an example for other players,” Emery said of his striker. “Every day working hard, every day trying to learn more. His mentality, to increase his level, practising and practising on the training ground. His commitment to work in the tactical areas we are planning every match.

“He’s scoring, he’s getting chances, he’s assisting, defending set-pieces. He has been available to play 90 minutes more or less, keeping fit to play a lot. He’s fantastic. For mentality, it’s difficult to find a player better than him. But his skill is also at a high level.”

If Villa are to go far in the Champions League, they’ll need different solutions to win games in order to combat a range of opposing styles from across the top leagues. In Onana, Villa have a versatile midfielder whose profile is a rarity at the top level.

At the age of 22, Onana has plenty to learn and potential to discover under Emery, but has already made over 100 appearances in top-flight league football and has won 17 caps for Belgium having featured in a World Cup and European Championships.

Onana also has experience of Champions League football, which came in the 2021/22 season with Lille. He featured in all eight of their matches against RB Salzburg, Wolfsburg and Sevilla before facing Chelsea in the round of 16.

"When you have already tasted the Champions League, you want to participate for many years and with the new format, we will be entitled to even more matches," the midfielder said. "When I put everything end-to-end, the planets are aligned for me.

"It's more pleasant to motivate yourself to look for a place at the top of the ranking but I don't know if it's easier! I'm just trying to impose myself, to be consistently like the past seasons and to grow as a player. I keep my goal: to become the best version of myself and a coach like Unai Emery can help me get there."

Villa planned for Luiz’s exit 18 months before his departure in June with the arrival of Youri Tielemnans last summer, before Ross Barkley joined on a cut-price deal in July. Villa’s lack of physicality, especially without Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara, showed last season.

“For the midfield, Unai wanted a physical player that plays well with the ball,” Monchi said in an interview with The Telegraph recently. “We worked in this direction with many names and in the end we signed Onana. He’s a top player, he played in England, his adaptation is easier. But it’s true we work with a big file.”

Villa only won one of the six away games they played in Europe last season. It’s crucial that they are able to keep clean sheets in the Champions League and. Ezri Konsa, one of the most underrated players in the Premier League, will be out to continue demonstrating his quality.

Like Watkins, Konsa thrived when given the opportunity at Euro 2024 and will excel in the Champions League under Emery. Pau Torres, who played under the Spaniard with Villarreal for years, went as far as the Champions League semi-final in 2022 after winning the Europa League the previous year.

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