
Emery targeting silverware after three years at Villa
Unai Emery revealed his overall objective at Aston Villa is to deliver silverware, most notably the Premier League title, as he celebrated the three-year anniversary of his appointment at the club.
Villa's league fixture against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday will fall exactly three years from the day when Emery took over at Villa Park.
Since his arrival in Birmingham, Emery has won 58 of his 110 games in charge of the club (52.73%), with Villa scoring 183 goals in that time and averaging 1.8 points per game in the competition.
Villa reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season, losing to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain, and progressed to the last four of the Conference League in the previous campaign.
Emery expressed his joy at how both he and the club have progressed over the past three seasons, but believes there is still a lot to achieve.
"Of course, very proud of how the club, supporters, the players, get the commitment together with our idea, our demands, as a manager and coaches following, being very, very demanding and consistent, and the level of demands we did overall," he told the club website.
"Even myself, because I am a better coach than three years ago, and thankful for the players to help me to get better as a coach and thankful for the club helping me and making me better with the opportunity I have to manage here.
"Of course, the owners - they are very important, how they are supporting me, how they are as well supporting the club.
"Still work to do, still objectives to set and work hard to achieve those objectives – collectively and myself as well, individually.
"One of them is some titles, but of course, the title only is winning one, Premier League, the cups in England, and Europe, is the target we can set through to achieve some titles, and we are in this way."
Keeping that level pic.twitter.com/cbSgQAfgvC
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 30, 2025
Emery will be hoping to leave Anfield with at least a point against a struggling Liverpool side.
The Reds continued their poor form during the week with a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the EFL Cup.
Arne Slot believes his squad depth is not as strong as many think it is, with his side struggling with the current schedule.
"Against Brentford, it was two days after we played Eintracht Frankfurt away, and I saw a team that is struggling to play three games in seven days, but it is not an excuse," said Slot.
"I've seen the struggles some players have had in pre-season. It's a new challenge to play in the Premier League and Champions League, three games in seven days.
"Our squad is probably not as big as people think it is. There has not been a change in the way we look at this."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Liverpool – Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah's goal against Brentford last time out was his first in all competitions for the club since scoring against Atletico Madrid on September 17.
Salah has 275 combined goals and assists in the Premier League for Liverpool (187 goals, 88 assists), one behind the record for a single club, set by Wayne Rooney at Manchester United (183 goals, 93 assists).
Aston Villa – Matty Cash
Only Bournemouth (six) have scored more Premier League goals from outside the box this season than Aston Villa (five), with Matty Cash responsible for two of those.
The Villa full-back is one of four players with multiple goals from distance this season (also Antoine Semenyo, Danny Welbeck and Moises Caicedo on two).
MATCH PREDICTION – LIVERPOOL WIN
Liverpool have won six of their last seven Premier League home games against Villa (D1), having been winless against them in four at Anfield before this (D2 L2).
The Reds are looking to avoid losing five consecutive league matches for the first time since September 1953; they are the first side in English top-flight history to win their first five matches in a season but then lose each of their next four.
While no side is on a longer losing run in the Premier League than Liverpool (four), no team is on a longer winning run than Villa (four).
The Villans could become the second side in top-flight history to win none of their first five games in a season then win five in a row, after Preston North End in 1936-37.
Having beaten Manchester City 1-0 last time out, Villa could become the first team since Leicester's title-winners in February 2016 to beat Man City and Liverpool in consecutive matches. The last side to beat Man City and then Liverpool in that order were Sheffield Wednesday in November/December 1993.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Liverpool – 56.9%
Draw – 22.3%
Aston Villa – 20.8%