After winning their first Champions League match in Switzerland, Aston Villa will host Wolverhampton Wanderers, a local rival, at Villa Park on Saturday to resume their Premier League duties.
Villa were winning handily in Europe but Wolves continued their awful start to the season as they were knocked out of the EFL Cup in midweek.
Aston Villa returned to Europe's top table on Tuesday, ending a forty-year drought. They won all three points in their Champions League match against Young Boys, the Swiss Super League champions, in Bern.
After taking some time to get used to the artificial surface at Stadion Wankdorf, goals from Youri Tielemans and Jacob Ramsey in the first half gave the Villans the lead. Two more goals were disallowed for handball by the VAR before Amadou Onana's incredible 30-yard shot completed the victory.
After rallying to defeat Everton three days prior, Unai Emery's team now has three straight victories. Super-sub Jhon Duran scored a fantastic game-winning goal after star attacker Ollie Watkins had leveled the score.
Villa has defeated Arsenal, who are expected to challenge for the championship, in three of their four Premier League games thus far. Only three other occasions have the Birmingham team won as much as four of their first five games.
Emery will surely be aiming for that accomplishment as his team's hectic schedule continues to pick up steam. Next week, they play Wycombe Wanderers in the EFL Cup, and a week later, they reunite with fellow 1982 European Cup finalists Bayern Munich.
Bailey was not taken on the plastic field at Young Boys in the middle of the week, but the Jamaican winger for Aston Villa might play this weekend, albeit probably from the bench.
Following his substitution in Switzerland, Ollie Watkins, an England striker, was shown with ice on his ankle. Emery has stated that Watkins should be well enough to play.
In his previous six home games, Watkins has contributed to seven goals, but Duran can fill in as a capable backup if needed. The latter scored the game-winning goal in each of Villa's three league triumphs this season while coming off the bench. On Tuesday, the VAR disallowed a spectacular shot, making Premier League history record four winning goals off the bench in a single season.
However, he will be very much conscious of Villa inadequacies at Villa Park from the end of the season 2023. In the league matches, the home team had been unbeaten between last March and this Christmas, having let in only eight goals in as many games; since then, 16 more games into the season, they have been.
Despite having tasted a 2-0 loss in the recent league match against Wolves, the Visitors have a relatively better record as they have only lost one of their last five league games at Villa Park before they face the upcoming match at the weekend.
Apart from that, there are no other positive signs for Gary O’Neil and co to look forward to as they have managed to win only one of the last 14 Premier League games since the end of the previous season and have lost 10 of those games. This can be said to be the Wolverhampton club’s worst slump in over two years and since the beginning of March, they have managed to garner fewer points (nine) than any other team in current top flight.
They are now 18th in the league with only one point in this season – only Southampton and Everton are worse. Wolves have already shipped three goals from outside the box in the league, having conceded two such goals in the 2-1 loss to Newcastle United last week; hence, they should be concerned about potential long balls by the likes of Tielemans and Duran.
O’Neil was not to have a midweek breather on Wednesday as his team was sidelined from the EFL Cup by Brighton & Hove Albion. Having failed to score at the Amex with goals from Goncalo Guedes and Tommy Doyle, he will surely be eager to begin reversing this situation on Saturday.
