Race for Champions League - 2023/2024

[Vive_La_Villa]

I personally reckon a European push and a top 8 finish. Would be amazing to win something. 
 

Top 4 along with going all the way in Europe is unlikely in my opinion but who knows.

[GingerCollins29]

Is it not top 5 for champs lge this season?

[Adam2003]

5 hours ago, tinker said:

The Newcastle game is a big game for us and I can only see one winner and that's us. Once that's out of the way everyone will start to have doubts about us being also rans, 6 games in and we will be talk of the premier league.

I love this attitude - my only concern is if this is the expectation, it won’t take much in the way of bad results for some to be really grumbling. 

[tinker]

19 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

I love this attitude - my only concern is if this is the expectation, it won’t take much in the way of bad results for some to be really grumbling. 

Thanks, if we get bad results then we have to look forward from them and trust Emery can solve the issue. The most telling thing of Emerys reign, so far, has been how well we have played in all the games, win or lose, we have looked composed and confident with our plan. All the players know what's expected from them and have been given the low down on their opposition.

Some fans will always look on the negative, its upto the other fans to pull them through. The car crash of Gerrards tenure should help us. 

[villan95]

2 hours ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Is it not top 5 for champs lge this season?

[GingerCollins29]

24 minutes ago, villan95 said:

Thanks. When will it be confirmed?

[villan95]

13 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Thanks. When will it be confirmed?

I'm still not sure whether it means we won't know until the end of next season

[villan95]

From the Athletic

[TomC]

I like what I've seen in the Newcastle and Fulham matches. Maybe I'm being overoptimistic, but I just have a good feeling about this season. I think that we have a realistic chance of the CL, especially if 5 teams qualify.

Other than Manchester City and Arsenal, name a team clearly better than us right now.

Man U? On the way back up, but we went toe-to-toe with them last year.

Liverpool? Still in transition, though I suspect they'll be back this year.

Chelsea and Spurs? Disasters last year. Poch might turn Chelsea around, but it's a long way back up.

Brighton? Sold too many players.

Newcastle? About even with us.

I think 2 places to Arsenal and Man City, and a 4-way race among us, Newcastle, Liverpool, Man U, and maybe Chelsea for the other 2 or 3 spots.

 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

I'm optimistic, but I think talk of Champions League, not only from our fans, but multiple pundits, could possibly be setting us up for failure or anticlimax.

Consolidate top 6/7 and have a cup run plus Europe and I'll be happy enough.

Then again, alternate thought is, players like Luiz and Dibu are entering phases of quality where getting into Champions League may be the only way you keep them.

Either way, even if they were to be sold it's mega money.

[rubberman]

6 hours ago, TomC said:

I like what I've seen in the Newcastle and Fulham matches. Maybe I'm being overoptimistic, but I just have a good feeling about this season. I think that we have a realistic chance of the CL, especially if 5 teams qualify.

Other than Manchester City and Arsenal, name a team clearly better than us right now.

Man U? On the way back up, but we went toe-to-toe with them last year.

Liverpool? Still in transition, though I suspect they'll be back this year.

Chelsea and Spurs? Disasters last year. Poch might turn Chelsea around, but it's a long way back up.

Brighton? Sold too many players.

Newcastle? About even with us.

I think 2 places to Arsenal and Man City, and a 4-way race among us, Newcastle, Liverpool, Man U, and maybe Chelsea for the other 2 or 3 spots.

 

100% - this is how i see it too and don't see much in the summer transfers to change this view. Possibly Man U a step ahead with Ten Hag having had a season, but we should be competitive with them.

The key will be putting away the lower/mid teams - can't afford too many shock results, though there are bound to be a couple through the season.

[lapal_fan]

I'm not sure what this season will bring, but I at least know we'll be competitive in EVERY match, which is a lot more than can be said for previous seasons.  

We'll still get the odd tanking, I'm sure, but we'll be really **** good this year, and team's won't want to play us.

I can't wait! 

I'll say, we'll finish.. 6th, which might be annoying for some, but with Conference, League Cup, FA Cup games too, I think we'll go deep in 2 of those comps.  6th would be great, but obviously hope for better! 

[TomC]

3 hours ago, rubberman said:

The key will be putting away the lower/mid teams - can't afford too many shock results, though there are bound to be a couple through the season.

Great teams beat the teams they're supposed to beat.

[sheepyvillian]

I remember the season we won the title. That first game at Elland Road where we beat Leeds 3 - 1, but it was the manner of the victory, it was a team who were assured and totally confident in their ability to face any opposition. The final piece of the jigsaw had been laid ( Withe) and this was now a team full of self - belief, with the emphasis most certainly on the concept of "team". 

This era is beginning to have echoes of one of the most successful Aston Villa teams ever. Players being brought and fitting seamlessly into the project at hand. You can sense the anticipation of every supporter, I haven't seen so many people wearing Villa colours in a long time. We're sensing something exciting and it's just wonderful to be a part of that feeling. 

[ender4]

There is a high chance we are all over-excited and overestimating how good we are (or how bad other teams will be). 

15 extra matches is going to take a toll on our squad. 

I've been this excited about the start of season a couple of times before, and then we crumbled during the season - like the MON season where we were potentially 4th for a good chunk of the season, but ended up 6th and then it all collapsed.

One match at a time, then let's see if we can match Chelsea, Spurs, Brighton, etc.

[duke313]

7 minutes ago, ender4 said:

There is a high chance we are all over-excited and overestimating how good we are (or how bad other teams will be). 

15 extra matches is going to take a toll on our squad. 

I've been this excited about the start of season a couple of times before, and then we crumbled during the season - like the MON season where we were potentially 4th for a good chunk of the season, but ended up 6th and then it all collapsed.

One match at a time, then let's see if we can match Chelsea, Spurs, Brighton, etc.

And yet many here questioned why we would sign Tielemans and Pau Torres when we have two good partnerships in Kamara/Doug and Mings/Konsa.

[sheepyvillian]

20 minutes ago, ender4 said:

There is a high chance we are all over-excited and overestimating how good we are (or how bad other teams will be). 

15 extra matches is going to take a toll on our squad. 

I've been this excited about the start of season a couple of times before, and then we crumbled during the season - like the MON season where we were potentially 4th for a good chunk of the season, but ended up 6th and then it all collapsed.

One match at a time, then let's see if we can match Chelsea, Spurs, Brighton, etc.

To be honest, I never anticipated a Champions league spot under MON. He was a great motivator but when it came to coaching, he wasn't all that. The football under him, at times, was really dour, whereas with Emery it's an Aston Villa that we haven't seen before, certainly in the way we want to play the game. He is leaving nothing to chance and has a coaching team behind him that he implicitly trusts. For me, it feels vastly different from the O'Neill era in terms of ambition. We are taking the European competition seriously, something O'Neill didn't do, such was his obsession with a top 4 place, he forgot that supporters like to see their team lift a trophy, or at least try.

I'm delighted fan's are excited and so they should be. This is a project that's going to succeed, I'm fully confident of that. We're a club going forward and it's time to enjoy the ride.

Edited July 27, 2023 by sheepyvillian

[VillaChris]

We just need a good start.

I'd be more than happy with 7 points from first 4 games. Wins v Everton and Burnley (although as we know too well an early away to promoted team is usually a defeat) and then a probably at Newcastle. Not sure we'll get anything at Anfield off the back of playing a europa game but we did play very well there last season and fully deserved a point.

We were miles off the pace first half of last season down to you know who. Going to the end of October we only had 9 points so some statement if we equal or even better that 4-5 games in.

Very often in the MON seasons we'd finish off a season strongly and then start the next one very well so I expect the same now given how well we were functioning as a unit (you don't lose that cohesion in three months) and the signings we've since made.

Big issue in MON times is we simply didn't strengthen enough in the January's and we didn't rotate much, that will be changing under this present set up.

I think we'll pretty much be in top 7 all season but we all know by now clubs can suddenly hit form in the business end, Liverpool winning 7 straight to get ahead of us from April after being s*** for most of last season was classic example.

[QldVilla]

I don’t believe we are far away from the Top 4, but still think we are 2-3 quality players short for that step.

[Keyblade]

It's not even top 4, it's top 5 right? We were within a shout of that going into the last few games last season, and that's with the early season handicap.