Aston Villa Manager Ezri Konsa Describes 11-Win Revival To Europe
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery took a side from one goal in its first five league games to a Champions League return, and Ezri Konsa says the same season also carried the club into the Europa League final. After a start that left Villa in the relegation zone, the defender described a turnaround built from a poor September and a run that ended with 11 wins on the bounce.
Konsa on Villa's early slide
Konsa said the first five league games produced one goal and no real lift. Villa were in the relegation zone after those matches, and he pointed to his own red card in the first game at Villa Park, a draw, as part of the early mess. Losses to Brentford and Palace followed, and the mood around the squad was bleak enough for him to say, "I’m not sure we’re gonna get out of this rut."
The low point came at Sunderland, where Villa were one man up and leading 1-0 before drawing after a late equaliser. Konsa said the team also took just two points off Everton and Sunderland, a stretch that showed how thin the margin was while Emery tried to steady the group.
Emery's meeting after five games
Emery called the players into a meeting after the poor start. Konsa said the manager used a word in that meeting he had never heard from him in the previous three years, which fits the urgency of a start that had already put Villa in trouble before autumn had really settled.
That pressure sat alongside the frustration of the previous season, when Villa lost out on the Champions League on the final day and Morgan had a goal disallowed at Old Trafford. Konsa also said the club could not strengthen the squad in the summer the way Emery wanted, so the turnaround had to come from the group already in place.
Bologna win and Villa surge
Konsa said the turning point came with a win over Bologna. Before that game, he told the press conference, "I fully believe in this squad. Once it clicks, we’re gonna fly." He later said Villa won 11 matches in a row, a stretch that changed the season from damage control to a push at the top end of the table.
Near the end of December, he said the table showed Arsenal on 42 points, Manchester City on 40 and Villa on 39. That was the shape of the recovery: a side that had started in the relegation zone was suddenly right behind the league leaders and back in the Champions League mix.
Konsa summed up the scale of it plainly: "If you had told me in September that we’d get back into the Champions League and play the Europa League final, I would have laughed at you." The line fits the season Villa actually produced, not the one it threatened to become after those first five games.
