When Unai Emery was unveiled at Villa Park in November 2022 he named two targets: win a trophy, and get the club into Europe. Four years on he has done both, the second one twice over, and on Tuesday night he takes Aston Villa to the Nou Camp in the Champions League with nine points on the board to Barcelona's six. He turns 55 on the day. He could hardly have picked a better place to spend the birthday, or a worse one, depending on how you read his record there.
One win in 30 against Barcelona
Emery has lost 14 of his 15 matches at the Nou Camp and has beaten Barcelona only three times in 30 attempts. His last Champions League night at the stadium was the one everybody remembers for the wrong reasons: Paris St-Germain, four goals up from the first leg, losing 6-1 and going out. He does not dodge it. He says the match taught him a great deal, including how badly football needed VAR at that point. No English team has won at the ground since Liverpool in 2007.
Villa go there with a confidence built on actual results. The Europa League was won in May, ending a 30-year wait for a trophy, and the club have spent two seasons pushing at the top end of the Premier League and in Europe. "We are constantly seeking new challenges and we want to respond in games against Barcelona to see how far we are from them," Emery said. He called Barcelona favourites on the basis of the past decade, then added that they still have to prove it.
The Carragher row and what Villa think of themselves
All of this is happening against the noise of a public argument. Villa were angry enough to threaten legal action when Jamie Carragher suggested on Sky Sports that Emery would want to manage an elite club and that Manchester United admire him. The club's own view is that they are the ones becoming an elite club, with Emery driving it. His contract, signed in May 2024, runs to 2029, so there is no immediate pressure, although a new deal after the Europa League win feels inevitable.
The squad has turned over heavily. Emi Martinez, Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne all left in the summer, and Ollie Watkins went to Saudi Arabia, while Johan Manzambi arrived from Freiburg. Emery's methods are famously demanding, with long meetings during the week and an adaptation period that can run into months. Internally, that is held up as the reason Aaron Wan-Bissaka has found this season hard, having not been coached in the same way at West Ham. It is also, by most accounts, why the exhaustive Monchi eventually needed a break and left his role last year.
Flick is complimentary, Barcelona are wary
Hansi Flick called Emery one of the best coaches in Europe and the world, praised the structure of his team and the variety of their attacking patterns, and noted that Villa's slow start has been corrected. Anthony Gordon, now at Barcelona, said much the same thing. Behind the compliments there is caution: sources at Barcelona are said to be worried about Alejandro Balde's recent struggles and Joao Cancelo's defensive instincts, and about Emery's habit of finding exactly that kind of weakness and attacking it.
Villa won the European Cup in 1982 and Emery says the club are still enjoying reminding their supporters of it. He wants a top-eight finish in the league phase, which means avoiding surprises, and he thinks the real decisions come in the second half of the season. A result in Catalonia would make that argument for him rather neatly.
Match context: Barcelona v Aston Villa, Champions League league phase, Nou Camp, Tuesday 3 November 2026. Villa have nine points, Barcelona six. Emery, 55 on the day of the match, has won the Europa League five times: three with Sevilla, once with Villarreal and once with Villa in May. His Villa contract runs to 2029.
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