00:00Aston Villa produced some of the most exciting football seen at Villa Park in years.
00:09Big wins against top six sides and a confident run in Europe showed the club's growing stature
00:14and their intents to challenge at the top end of the table.
00:18Key players like Holly Watkins and Uri Tielemans delivered consistently, while Villa's home
00:23form became a fortress.
00:26With their incredible Champions League run, this campaign will go down as one of the
00:30most memorable in the club's recent history.
00:34We spoke to Charlie Haffenden of Birmingham World to reflect on Aston Villa's best moments
00:39from a season that reignited belief across the fan base.
00:44Charlie, looking at Aston Villa, and let's start by looking across the season, maybe a
00:50bit of a reflection of a season that promised so much and maybe just fell short at the last
00:55moments, but still some incredible history set with their return to the Champions League
01:00and those incredible nights against Bayern Munich and PSG as well.
01:06Obviously, the season moved so fast and it did end in slight disappointment, but they
01:11will still be competing in Europe next season with high ambitions under Unai Emery, I'm sure.
01:16Let's start with the best moment in terms of Villa season or moments or period because they
01:23had that run where they were sort of unstoppable. Maybe you can touch on the January window as
01:27well. That was remarkable. That took a lot of people by surprise with the signings they got in
01:32and they were going big. So, what sort of stands out as the best moment for Aston Villa fans this season?
01:38I think it's difficult to pick just one, to be honest. The Champions League run was just incredible.
01:44Qualifying for it in the first place was such an achievement. I think even if Villa got
01:48knocked out in that league phase, they wouldn't have been too disappointing. At least they would have
01:52had the opportunity to play within it. Playoffs would have been good enough. Finishing between
01:569th and 24th, but finishing the top eight was just absolutely incredible. And that win over Bayern
02:02Munich at Villa Park towards the start of that run was such an incredible night to remain unbeaten at
02:08Villa Park throughout the entire Champions League campaign. Incredible. Same could be said in the Premier
02:12League as well, apart from the opening, the first home game in the season against Arsenal that they
02:16lost. They were undefeated in every single game at Villa Park, so that's a real achievement. I think
02:21that PSG game, the second leg, even though they went out on aggregate, just a fight to get back into
02:28that game after going 1-0 down so early, to win it 3-2, the atmosphere was absolutely unbelievable.
02:35It's difficult to pick out just one moment, as I say, but the January windows you kind of touched
02:39upon with Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio coming in. These are transfers that fans just wouldn't
02:44have been able to imagine, even a couple of years ago when Unai Emery first came in. So,
02:48really on the rise, so much to be positive about, even if they did miss out on the Champions League
02:53qualification at the end. Yeah, in terms of worst moments, or sort of moments to maybe brush past
03:00and forget, the FA Cup run was fantastic and you maybe thought going into that semi-final against
03:06Crystal Palace that their poor form against Palace wouldn't continue, yet it did. Palace were
03:12incredible on the day and Villa sort of went home thinking, you know, we were possibly dreaming of
03:17lifting the Champions League and if not, then maybe the FA Cup in terms of a trophy this season and
03:22then it slowly, you know, ever so quickly went out the window for them and Unai Emery and then
03:28the attention turns to getting Champions League qualification and they just fall short on the
03:33final day in controversial fashion as well at Old Trafford, but surely maybe looking at the season
03:39and thinking they could have been very much closer to lifting a bit of silverware.
03:44Yeah, I think there's kind of three periods or moments that stand out. There was one period where
03:49Villa kept two clean sheets in 23 matches. Emi Martinez was not in form of that period,
03:54the defence not in form at all. Pau Torres was out for two and a half months with a broken metatarsal,
03:59but then they managed to keep many clean sheets towards the end of the season. They went on such
04:03a great winning streak and they very nearly clinched that Champions League football at the
04:07last moment. I think if you look at 10 games to go in the season, you wouldn't have expected them
04:12to be in the fight for the top five, but they got into that position and if they just managed to get
04:16one point against Manny Nice at Old Trafford, they would have got into it and that is kind of the
04:21second of the three moments I'm talking about is that game at Old Trafford. Such a disappointment.
04:25All they needed to do was their own job because the other results elsewhere ended up going their
04:29way. No silverware, no Champions League, but the fact that they've managed to stay in these races,
04:35they've managed to have decent progression in lots of competitions and been so close,
04:39I think it just shows that Villa are on this trajectory for a long time now and not just briefly.
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