Aston Villa’s chances of silverware continue to improve with good draws and impressive new signings

National World - LocalTV

Aston Villa are on the brink of an incredible season, with Unai Emery’s side pushing for silverware on multiple fronts. A favourable FA Cup draw has only strengthened their chances of reaching Wembley, adding to an already impressive campaign in the Premier League and Europe. With the fixture list piling up, can they sustain their momentum and turn a strong season into something truly historic? To get more insight on Villa’s ambitions and their FA Cup chances, we spoke to Charlie Haffenden of BirminghamWorld.

Transcript

00:00Now, Aston Villa are on the brink of an incredible season, with Unai Emery's side pushing for

00:07silverware on multiple fronts. A favourable FA Cup draw has only strengthened their chances

00:13of reaching Wembley, adding to an already impressive campaign in the Premier League

00:18and in Europe.

00:20Emery has transformed Villa into a dynamic, well-balanced side, blending defensive resilience

00:25with attacking quality. But with the fictionalists piling up, can they sustain their momentum

00:30and turn a strong season into something truly historic?

00:34To get an insight on Villa's ambitions and their FA Cup chances, I've spoke to Charlie

00:39Halfonden of Birmingham World.

00:43Charlie, let's move on to Aston Villa and let's look at Aston Villa in terms of the

00:50FA Cup this season. I mean, they've got another favourable draw. We've mentioned that the

00:54favourable draw in the last 16 of the Champions League against Club Brugia. I mean, FA Cup

01:00situation, Preston North End is not a bad draw, you know, no disrespect, but a Championship

01:04Club, I mean, it's a huge chance to go far. They've proven that they can do it in terms

01:10of competition in the Champions League. Can they go all the way in the FA Cup and make

01:16more history? This could be an incredible season.

01:20It really could. I think there hasn't really been much of an opportunity for them to go

01:24this far in the FA Cup for a very long time. And I think you can say the same for a lot

01:28of the other teams remaining in the competition. Lots of potential first winners of it as well.

01:33My own team, Brighton and Hervalby, are playing against Nottingham Forest. Quite a difficult

01:37tie there, but I think they're two teams that Villa would be happy to come up against compared

01:41to the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea and Manchester City up at the other end of the table. You've

01:47also got Bournemouth playing Manchester City. I mean, it's not going to be an easy one if

01:51Man City reach all the way to the final and Villa have to play them. But if you're going

01:55to play them on any year, any given year, I think you would take this one with Pep Guardiola

01:59struggling to get them going and obviously they might not even finish in the Champions

02:03League spot. So it's definitely a good time to play them. You've got Fulham and Crystal

02:07Palace in the other quarterfinal tie as well. I think they're two very beatable teams. There

02:12hasn't really been a better opportunity, has there, in such a long time. And that Preston

02:16draw is just such a relief for Villa. They're going to have a very tough fixture run coming

02:20up, obviously playing PSG in the quarterfinals of the Champions League around that kind of

02:24time. They've got Southampton as well that they've got to play in the Premier League.

02:28That's quite a nice, relieving fixture when you've got to play PSG twice in the space

02:32for a week. So yeah, I'm feeling hopeful for Villa. I think they can beat Preston and get

02:36through. It just depends, doesn't it, on who they get in the semi-finals.

02:40Villa's transfer strategy, we've mentioned it, how they built that squad, signed a few

02:47top European contenders and made their way into the Conference League. Then it doesn't

02:52all quite go to plan in terms of going incredibly far in that. But then they make the immediate

02:57jump to the Champions League and their business definitely correlated with that with some

03:01more top signings and reinvestment in the squad. How much further can they go? Because

03:07obviously they've attracted the likes of Marcus Rashford, Marco Sengio. These star

03:11players are now coming to Villa Park. We've mentioned Unai Emery's Paul before and a trip

03:16to Wembley. They're going to be on the big screens again. Players will want to be involved

03:21at Aston Villa. The summer could be incredibly interesting for them.

03:26Yeah, it's incredible really how much Unai Emery's achieved in such a short period of

03:31time. A lot of the players he's dealing with are still here from when Steven Gerrard was

03:37at the club and they're in a relegation battle. I believe eight of the starters in the recent

03:40Champions League game have been there under Steven Gerrard. Amazing really what he's been

03:45able to do. But obviously, as you mentioned, Marcus Rashford, Marco Sengio, these are two

03:50very marquee signings, probably the biggest name signing since Philippe Coutinho came

03:54through the door. Now they both made a fantastic start. Marco Sengio in particular scoring

03:59seven goals in his first eight games. I think they'll definitely look at the possibility

04:04of signing Axel de Zassi permanently from Chelsea. They got it for five million on loan

04:08for the rest of the season. Chelsea are open to selling him in the summer. There'll be

04:12other defensive targets looked at, no doubt as well. Emery does want to have a proper

04:17centre-back pairing going forward. I know Konza and Paulo Torres have been great together.

04:22But when Paulo Torres has been injured, Tyrone Mings, although he's had an amazing performance

04:26here and there, hasn't quite been that consistent force, especially with his fitness. There

04:31will be more defensive additions, no doubt. Philippe can then really push on to try and

04:35become a proper force in the Champions League. Hopefully they can achieve that qualification

04:39for next season. It's amazing to see how far they could get in the transfer market.

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