The international break is almost over and Aston Villa will soon be returning to Premier League action when they host Brentford on Saturday.
That game will mark a busy October featuring seven games for Villa across three different competitions. Crucially five of those games will be at home.
After Brentford, Villa will face Fenerbahce in their first Champions League game at Villa Park since the quarter-final second-leg against PSG two seasons ago, before their only away game in the league in October, as they travel to Newcastle.
That is followed by back-to-back home games against Viking in the Champions League and Manchester City in the league, which will have an interesting atmosphere in the wake of the guilty verdict over City’s financial breaches.
Their only other away game is at Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup, and they finish up October with another home game against Fulham in the Premier League.
Villa have only played two games at Villa Park – which currently has only three functioning stands due to construction work – and lost both. October presents a huge opportunity to rebuild the home field advantage which has been so crucial to the club’s success under Unai Emery.
It was around this time last year was when Villa really kicked into gear after a slow start. They beat Fulham at Villa Park at the end of September before winning all three Premier League games in October, two of which were at home and one against Man City.
That started a remarkable run between 28th September and 27th December when Villa won 12 league games and lost only one, away at Liverpool. They also won four Europa League games during that stretch, only losing one to Go Ahead Eagles.
Unai Emery’s Villa sides in recent years have been known to go on long winning streaks within seasons, usually punctuated by some confusingly poor runs where it looks like they might never win again.
But that was a different team, and the personality of this new group of Villa players is still yet to fully reveal itself.
The signs have been positive of late after they beat Coventry City in the league cup and Tottenham in the Premier League before the pause. Villa have also enjoyed friendly victories over Southampton and Sevilla during the break.
That has inspired confidence Emery is getting his team on the right track, but are they capable of going on the type of run of results the old group did?
If they are going to make a serious run at the European places and specifically the Champions League spots, Villa have to make the most of their October fixture list, while also looking to make progress in this year’s Champions League and Carabao Cup.
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