An aspect that will prove to be useful for Aston Villa is the fact that they have players in their prime who have stayed together for a bit of time. Depending on who is asked, a player's prime can be within the 27-34 range. That is not to say, of course, that someone can still be a valuable contributor before or after that age range. It does speak, though, to the way in which this Villa squad has been built through the works of Unai Emery and Monchi.
Although many are constantly looking for younger talent and are hoping to build a young squad that can stick together for a long time in a similar way, that is often not possible. At a certain point human nature and poor decisions from the club begin to take over, which can then result in something that would have otherwise been fine ending prematurely before things can properly take off and see their full potential.
For Emery, he will now have a team that is used to playing on the pitch with each other that also has a lot of potential to continue to build on the progress that has already been made.
Differing approach from Aston Villa
While the other Premier League teams are constantly searching for new players to reinforce their squad with, Villa's approach will provide an interesting case study as to what works best in the EPL.
Emery believes that Villa have the needed winning formula to continue to make positive strides. How the year plays out, of course, is completely unknown. Anything can happen over the course of 90 minutes and throughout a season. Villa are of the opinion that their approach will allow for the side to fight against all of the inherent disadvantages that are constantly being levied against the club.