Aston Villa journalist John Townley has tried to cool fans’ expectations as the club prepare to kick off the new season away at West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday.
The excitement for the new season is palpable, with Aston Villa fans hopeful their side will not take their poor pre-season form into the new Premier League season.
Unai Emery oversaw three defeats in three games in Villa’s tour of the United States before beating Athletic Bilbao 3-2 and losing 2-0 to Borussia Dortmund to round off the summer preparations.
If you include Cameron Archer’s return from Sheffield United due to a relegation clause in the deal last summer, then there have been eight first-team arrivals this close-season.
Emery has the difficult task of integrating all the new faces, as well as filling the voids left by Douglas Luiz and Moussa Diaby’s exits.
That all starts with a trip to the London Stadium to face West Ham on Saturday evening.
John Townley previews Aston Villa first three games of 2024/25 Premier League season
Villa started last season with a 5-1 hammering at the hands of Newcastle United.
That did not prove fatal as the club went on to achieve a top four finish, but they will be keen to avoid a similar fate against West Ham this weekend.
- READ MORE: How Aston Villa could line up for Premier League opener v West Ham based on pre-season performances
Villa journalist John Townley has been looking ahead to the new campaign on the latest episode of the Claret & Blue podcast, where he spoke not only about the first league game of the season but the first three.
Villa face West Ham, Arsenal and Leicester in the league before the first international break of the season and Townley revealed what he would view as a decent start to the campaign as he said: “I think it’s a mixed bag, because you’ve got a team who could win the league, a team who could get Europe and a team that could be relegated.
“I think it’s a difficult start, i’d take four points.
“West Ham is a difficult game, we don’t tend to win there, Arsenal is obviously a difficult match and then Leicester.
“You feel like if we don’t win one of those two matches against Arsenal and West Ham, I wouldn’t say there’s pressure on the Leicester game, but you go into it thinking ‘well, we should win this game anyway’, but also if we don’t you go into an international break then.
He concluded by adding: “It’s a tricky start.”
Aston Villa will take confidence from completing Arsenal double last season
Villa drew their away game against West Ham 1-1 last season, with Nicolo Zaniolo cancelling out a Michail Antonio goal.
They won the home fixture against the Hammers 4-1, meaning they took four points from six against Saturday’s opponents last campaign.
Something that will give them even more confidence ahead of the first three league games of the season is the fact Emery masterminded a league double over Arsenal Lin 2023/24.
The 2-0 win at The Emirates in April provided a huge dent in the Gunners’ title aspirations and earned Villa a huge three points in their push for a top four finish.
