A special season beckoned for Aston Villa as the 2024/25 campaign dawned.
Still riding high on the achievement of a fourth-place finish in the Premier League a couple of months earlier, Unai Emery’s squad had UEFA Champions League football to look forward to as they returned to Bodymoor Heath for pre-season.
Playing against the elite teams on the continent for the first time since 1983 was a fitting way to help mark the club’s 150th Anniversary Season, with plenty of activities lined up off the pitch to celebrate the magnificent milestone.
Following a pre-season that took the club to Slovakia, Washington DC, Columbus, New York, Chicago and Germany, Villa got into competitive action with a trip to London Stadium to face West Ham United.
New signing Amadou Onana marked his debut with the opening goal in a 2-1 victory against the Hammers, with substitute Kosta Nedeljković becoming the 1,000th player to represent Villa in a competitive match.
Arsenal took the spoils in our home opener, but the hard-fought 2-0 loss would prove to be the only Premier League defeat suffered at Villa Park. Three consecutive wins in the top flight followed as Leicester City were beaten 2-1, Everton 3-2 and Wolves 3-1.
That run added to the positivity of a triumphant start to the club’s maiden Champions League campaign.
A 3-0 success against BSC Young Boys in Switzerland, where Youri Tielemans became the club’s first scorer in the competition, was a poignant one for everyone involved with the club after the loss of club legend Gary Shaw a day prior, with Emery saying after: “This victory is for Gary Shaw.”
The life of our homegrown hero was celebrated at the next two home matches, a win against Wolves and a repeat of the 1982 European Cup final against Bayern Munich.
Shaw’s role in the club’s finest hour was front and centre as supporters paid their tributes to him, with the team rising to the occasion and beating the German giants by the same 1-0 scoreline that Villa had achieved against them on our previous meeting.
John McGinn’s journey from Championship to Champions League with the club was in focus when the captain bagged in a 2-0 win at home to Bologna, extending the team’s winning start to the league phase.
Two second-half goals saw off the Serie A side and put Villa in a great position to push on towards a top eight finish.
"This is my seventh season, we’ve had our ups and downs, it’s been an absolute rollercoaster, but the fans crave success," McGinn said afterwards.
"They love to be at the top end of European football and, for me, to just keep jumping up the levels with the club makes the relationship easier."
Five Academy players were handed senior debuts against Wycombe Wanderers in a 2-1 win in the third round of the League Cup, but a loss to Crystal Palace by the same scoreline at the end of October ended our interest in the competition.
Stay tuned for part two of our 2024/25 season review...
