Alejandro Garnacho among three Aston Villa players whose stock has decreased this season
Aston Villa's start to the 2025/26 season been a bit of a slow burner.
Unai Emery's side won their opening Champions League clash against Club Brugge, and also made it through round three of the Carabao Cup by beating Coventry City.
In the Premier League, they finally got a tick in the win column by running out 3-2 victors at Tottenham Hotspur before the international break.
The Villans only have four points from five matches thus far, and will be desperate to step up a gear when domestic action resumes.
In fairness to Emery, he has been contending with a huge turnover in personnel during the close season, and he will be confident things will step up in the coming weeks.
For now, though, Villa News has identified three players whose stock has decreased in the opening stages of the season.
Alejandro Garnacho
Emery made all the right noises about Alejandro Garnacho's arrival on loan from Chelsea during the transfer window.
But already the Argentina winger looks to be fighting for his Villa Park career.
He has just three sub appearances to his name, and has sat on the bench in each of the past four games - including the Carabao Cup win over Coventry.
Emery has already hinted that Garnacho has work to do to get opportunities over other attackers in the squad, and it feels a long way back for the 22-year-old already.
Joao Gomes
Plucked from rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the close season, Joao Gomes made a poor start to his Villa career.
He was sent off in the 4-0 defeat at Brighton in Villa's Premier League opener, was also involved for the UEFA Super Cup defeat to PSG.
Since then, Gomes has featured in wins over Club Brugge and Tottenham, so the trajectory is at least improving.
Hopefully when the action resumes, he can really kick on again and display his talent in a Villa shirt.
Pau Torres
With Ezri Konsa among those to depart in the summer, it was on Villa's other centre-backs to really step up.
But Pau Torres has not looked convincing yet this season, albeit he ended up with a couple of assists against Brugge.
He had a poor performance by his standards against Brighton, and has not looked overly assured at the back this term.
Torres will want to step it up a notch when the season continues.