Curse lifted as Emery's Villa sew the threads of European football

And breathe.

How many times have you seen that match lost by a flagging Aston Villa side?

Well, I don't have to tell you, reader, how many times the Villa have turned up in an away stadium in their third shirt only to fall apart.

It was those games that'd define entire seasons. They'd usually be against a Southampton, or a Brighton, or a Sheffield United. 3pm away kick-offs where the sun fled early, and hope soon followed.

Everyone gets one. A bogey-tie. You can't win every single football match, and in every away fixture the opposition crowd can be a great equaliser no matter the quality of the visiting team.

However, better teams seal more of those out. Teams like Aston Villa simply do not turn up in them. For teams like the Villa, consider it a curse - let alone a tough tie away from B6.

Not anymore. Curse lifted.

A side that was once grasping at the fraying threads that sew them into being a European footballing dynasty once more now find themselves as more-than-adequate tailors threading their own destiny, taking what is theirs.

Don't get it twisted either, this is a fairly patchwork Villa side. The sale of Danny Ings leaves Villa unable to field another striker (Leon Bailey doesn't count). The team loses a bench spot to the furthest reaches of youth (see Kadan Young), or an extra - pointless - goalkeeper.

Villa's great differential is their wielding of an elite manager in the dugout. Unai Emery's fearsome talent could go the way of a Louis van Gaal - where talented players drown in notebook upon notebook of micro-managing advice, but at the moment it seems like he has got his 'live-and-let-live' nailed down. He's using poor performances to refresh, and good ones to push forward.

And that, against Southampton, was a good performance.

Rightly, it'd have been a hard-fought 1-1 (and you'd be happy with that). The Saints were robbed by VAR when Jacob Ramsey was adjudged to have been fouled in the build-up to James Ward-Prowse's 'opener'.

There's no excuses. Yes, we've seen that happen to Villa - but it was not, nor never will be a foul. The most magical event in a match is a goal, and this one was robbed by a Stockley-Park pencil pusher. It's gutting, but the Villans capitalised - through the unlikeliest of sources; a set piece.

Some Emi Martinez heroics, and we're here. Three points later and the conversation of snatching European football has risen again.

It is a tiny sample size, but this year (2023), Villa are showing top-four form.

Expanded to the last six games, they are showing top-five form.

Either way, that's Europe on the cards if it carries on.

The best part of it? The last few games for Villa have been scraps. Leeds, Wolves, Tottenham and Southampton did not let Villa walk all over them. For every point, Villa have fought. Hard.

A team driven by a sharp mind has shown so much already. Surely, they can keep this up?

Surely, they can get even better?