Stiliyan Petrov: Emery is under pressure at Villa but he can turn things around

Stiliyan Petrov speaks exclusively to Ladbrokes about Aston Villa's poor start to the Premier League season, the pressure Unai Emery is starting to be under and Ollie Watkins' drought in front of goal.

After getting their first win of 2025/26 against Bologna in the Europa League, Villa face Fulham in their next Premier League game on Sunday. Check out our in-depth match preview.

Aston Villa have had a really difficult start to the season, which is something I don’t think the fans or the manager would have expected. They still have a strong team, though – they’re just finding their form and the rhythm of the league, which they haven’t managed to do so far.

It’s been a really difficult start, and I’m sure fans would have expected more of what we’ve seen over the last couple of years, but that hasn’t been the case. For now it’s just about grinding games out and finding results. It’s still early in the season though, so there’s plenty of time to turn things around.

The important thing is that in Unai Emery, they have a manager who knows how to put things right. And I believe the players know that they’re not putting the best performances in right now. But they’ve got some very good players; very good individuals who the manager will absolutely still believe in.  

Is Unai under pressure? Listen, managers are always under pressure… even when you’re winning games, you have to be consistent. But these days managers are judged by the results… Unai is a really clever guy who knows the position he’s in, and knows he has to produce results. You can see in his interviews that he’s frustrated with how things are going right now, how his players are handling games and performing… he’ll know he’s under pressure, because that’s what comes with managing a big club like Villa. 

I’ve spoken with the manager a couple of times. I won’t share any secrets, but he’s incredible. First of all, as a human being, he’s amazing – you have to acknowledge that before anything. But he’s also an amazing manager, who is really detailed in his work; he pays attention to every little detail and he’s surrounded himself with great people to work with. The owners have backed him and have given him everything he wants. 

Of course Aston Villa aren’t going to go down; that’s not going to happen. This is clearly a difficult period for the club and there are a lot of questions to be answered in the next few weeks, but it’s a good enough squad to get out of this situation. 

The issue for Aston Villa in the summer was around bringing money into the club and looking at the books because Financial Fair Play is such a big part of the game now. That’s the issue. Most of the summer was spent focusing on getting players out of the door first, bringing money in and then looking at who they might be able to sign. It’s meant the club has been put in a really difficult position in terms of transfers, and while the three main signings all came in late, Jadon Sancho, Victor Lindelof and Harvey Elliott are three very, very good players. Now it’s down to the manager to integrate those guys into the squad. 

I do think, though, that the club could have brought a new striker in. If your right-back is your top scorer after five games, then it’s a big issue, clearly. You need goals in this league, you need goals from several players within your squad. Ollie Watkins has done an amazing job for Aston Villa in recent years and the pressure has very much been on him. He loves that kind of pressure, because that’s the type of player he is. But, sometimes you need help. You need better options from the bench, you need competition for places, but it just seems like the pressure is all going to be on Watkins again this season. 

View the latest football odds here.

All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.