Europa League master Unai Emery set to deliver a historic night for Aston Villa

Nobody knows how to win the Europa League quite like Unai Emery. Indeed, the Spanish coach has won European soccer’s second tier competition four times over the course of his managerial career and could get his hands on the trophy for a fifth time on Wednesday in Istanbul.

Aston Villa are preparing for their most glorious continental night since 1982 when they were crowned European champions. Under Emery, the Birmingham outfit have made a run to the Europa League final where they will face Freiburg. Villa are on the brink of a triumph that was barely imaginable only a few years ago when Emery arrived at the club.

When Emery walked through the door in October 2022, he found a team struggling to stay in the Premier League. Under Steven Gerrard, Aston Villa were heading for the Championship. There had been a regression since the club’s promotion to the English top division and Emery was hired to reverse that.

He did more than that. Very quickly, Emery turned Villa into one of the best quick-transition teams in the Premier League. The club brought in the likes of Pau Torres, Morgan Rogers and Lucas Digne to supplement a group of players that was already good enough to compete at a high level.

Emery got more out of Ollie Watkins as Aston Villa’s first-choice striker with the 30-year-old expected to be part of the England squad that goes to the World Cup this summer. He has been part of the international set-up for a number of years and Watkins has a lot to thank Emery for in his development.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Unai Emery,” said Watkins ahead of the Europa League final against Freiburg. “There’s been a massive turnaround since he’s come into the club. The football we are playing, the belief he has put into us as players. To achieve what we have with the same squad is remarkable and credit to him and the players for working hard on the training pitch to implement the game plan he is giving to us.”

John McGinn is another player Emery inherited and took to an entirely new level. The Scotland international is the beating heart of the Aston Villa dressing room and played a key role in carrying his team to the Europa League final, scoring twice in the semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest.

At Arsenal, Emery was a misfit. There was an expectation that the Spaniard would set up his team to play a certain way that was never realistic. As Aston Villa manager, though, Emery has been allowed to mould the team and the club in his own image. He has the sort of freedom that was never afforded to him at the Emirates Stadium.

“It would be another step forward,” said Emery when asked what winning the Europa League would mean to Villa. “But to play for a trophy is difficult, it’s 50-50 for us or Freiburg to win it. There is still a lot of work to do but how we are playing now, at a high level, is bringing us some good moments as professionals.”

Villa have already achieved a lot under the former Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Villarreal boss. They have made a Champions League quarter-final. They have finished in the top five of the Premier League in two of the last three seasons, with Villa already certain of their place in next season’s Champions League.

In Istanbul, though, Aston Villa can sample the sort of glory they haven’t experienced for over four decades. The sight of Emery and his players lifting the Europa League trophy on Wednesday would be the ultimate symbol of how far Villa have come under their Spanish manager.