Ty Bracey exclusive: Top half finish will be success for Aston Villa this season
We’re delighted to welcome Villa View host Ty Bracey as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Unai Emery has already overseen a major improvement but anything in the top half of the Premier League will constitute success from here, says Ty Bracey.
For most of the early weeks of the season it looked like avoiding relegation was going to be the main concern for the Villans, but since Steven Gerrard’s sacking things have lifted, and certainly since the former Villarreal boss arrived and reeled off two wins in a row.
The only blot on his record is a defeat in the Carabao Cup, but Bracey is very happy with what he’s seen so far and feels the cup game had wider uses for the new manager.
“We’ve had a great start to the reign under Emery,” he said, speaking exclusively to Villa News.
“I think anything in the top half of the table will be classed as success this season.
“We’re slowly pushing up there and two from two before the World Cup break was a perfect start, so good times.
“We rotated a lot of players [for the Carabao Cup], so did Man United, but we gave them a good go.
“I think it was important to have a rotation, and I think he probably used that game to get a grasp of where the rest of his squad depth is.
“So I think he will have a good idea going into the World Cup of where we need to make changes in the transfer window.”
The Premier League table is still very congested this season so a few more wins when the World Cup is over could get Villa up the table quickly.
There is certainly still scope to challenge for European qualification if Emery can maintain the improved standards, which would belatedly get the club competing for the objectives from prior to the season.
It has been a pretty miserable season for the fans so far, but the early signs of the new regime are much-improved, and with a significant break for the World Cup there is still plenty of football to be played to redeem the campaign, even if expectations need to be tempered slightly by Gerrard’s reign.
In other Aston Villa news, Alan Hutton thinks Eden Hazard could end up in the same situation as Philippe Countinho if he arrived.