The 2023/24 Premier League fixtures have been released and Unai Emery’s Aston Villa will make the trip to St James’ Park to take on Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United for their opening game.
It’s a pretty tough start for Villa because the Magpies, who finished in the Champions League places last season, have been formidable at home under Howe and they will want to get off to a pretty rapid start.
The Villa Park faithful know too well because they were smoked 4-0 at Newcastle last season, albeit, they had stand-in coach, Aaron Danks, in charge then, before Emery was appointed.
That’s the first trip of the 2023/24 Premier League season for the Midlands outfit, with the first home game of the season being Sean Dyche’s Everton, just like last season.
That will be followed by two trips to newly-promoted Burnley and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, before rounding off September by facing Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Brighton.
Other notable fixtures to point out are a Boxing Day trip to Manchester United, facing Liverpool for the final home game of the season and locking horns with Crystal Palace on the final game of the campaign.
Can Emery guide Villa to Europe?
That’s going to be the aim, added to trying to win the Europa Conference League, as Villa make a return to Europe for the first time in over a decade.
Expect a number of Sunday games because of Villa’s European trips, but it’s going to be interesting how the players cope with now playing three times a week.
It will be interesting to hear if the Villa fans would accept finishing in the bottom half, but winning the Europa Conference League because that’s exactly what happened to West Ham United and their fans are over the moon.
But with Youri Tielemans already through the doors, and talk of highly-rated Spanish winger Nico Williams, the squad needs bulking up in order to cope with the demands of next season because it’s going to be tough.
Thankfully, it’s Emery at the wheel and there is no better man you would want to guide you via the dugout than the European expert himself.
