2024/25 will be a historic campaign for Aston Villa, who will feature in the Champions League for the first time since the competition’s rebranding over three decades ago.

A sensational season at Villa Park saw the Midlands club secure a well-earned Champions League spot following the continuation of their impressive transformation under Unai Emery. Their early season form proved pivotal to their success in the Premier League.

Villa are looking to build on the sturdy foundations now in place and have gone on a Chelsea-esque spending spree in the summer transfer window. Ian Maatsen and Amadou Onana are sizeable additions but talent and depth has been sprinkled across the squad.

Their transfer activity should help them avoid a significant drop-off in the Premier League regardless of their European excursions, with Emery’s men looking to repeat their impressive fourth-placed finish from 2023/24.

Here’s 90min’s preview of an exciting campaign for Aston Villa.

Having been promoted from the Championship in 2018/19 following a surprise relegation, Villa have spent the last five seasons in the English top flight. Narrowly avoiding demotion in their first campaign back in the Premier League, two mediocre seasons followed with 11th and 14th-placed finishes.

However, Emery’s arrival has sparked a revolution. Taking over from Steven Gerrard part way through the 2022/23 season, the former Arsenal coach guided the Villans to an impressive seventh, qualifying for the Europa Conference League. That was improved upon last term, with Villa securing fourth spot after a brief title charge at the start of the campaign.

With an array of new signings, there have been some changes to squad numbers for the 2024/25 season. Notably, Onana has taken the number 24, despite that number already being owned by wantaway forward Jhon Duran.

Ross Barkley has grabbed the number six off the departed Douglas Luiz and Maatsen will wear the number 22, while the former Juventus duo of Samuel Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea have inherited the 17 and 21 jerseys respectively.

*Numbers subject to change before end of transfer window

In

Out

Aston Villa have moved to adidas for the 2024/25 season having had to endure some questionable Castore kits over recent years. There is a new sponsor with Betano taking over from BK8 but there is a familiar feel to this season’s home shirt.

The Villans haven’t released their new away and third shirt for the upcoming campaign as things stand.

Home kit

It’s hard to look beyond Ollie Watkins to top Aston Villa’s goalscoring standings in 2024/25 after the striker netted a hugely impressive 19 goals and provided a further 13 assists last term in the Premier League. The speedy centre-forward is good value to bag a similar number in the upcoming campaign, if not improve his tally.

Juggling Champions League and Premier League football may influence his output but the 28-year-old showed his ability to be a reliable provider last season despite featuring regularly in the Europa Conference League.

Whether or not Villa can build on their 2023/24 momentum remains to be seen, but it’s hard to doubt Emery given what he’s achieved with the club so far.

Douglas Luiz is a big loss in midfield – a sale forced by the need for Premier League PSR compliance – and that ramps up the pressure on the likes of Youri Tielemans and Jacob Ramsey, who are both very talented players but haven’t garnered the same attention as the departed Brazilian.

The workload of Watkins is another factor to consider, with his full involvement in European competition guaranteed to be from the off, and another regular goal source may need to be found if Villa are to secure the top-six finish their squad strength suggests they should deliver.

Aston Villa 2024/25 Premier League prediction – 6th

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