ONE of the most famous football stadiums in European football, Villa Park has long been the home of Aston Villa, but it’s rarely witnessed the side that plays on its hallowed turf string together a longer unbeaten run.

With victory against Paris Saint-Germain in midweek, the Villans stretched their unbeaten home run to 18 consecutive outings on home soil and even though they were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in the process by the Parisians at the quarter final stage, fewer sides currently boast a better home record.

That run encompasses matches in Europe’s premier continental competition, the Premier League and the FA Cup and is the club’s longest such streak since February 1991. Simply put, if Unai Emery’s side are to finish within the top five again this campaign in order to return to the UCL for 2025-26, extending it even further could prove pivotal to their chances.

To begin with, let’s outline the context around Aston Villa’s current unbeaten home run, starting with a look at their longest in club history.

Now 18 matches unbeaten across all competitions at Villa Park since November 2024, this is already the joint 8^th longest ever unbeaten streak for Aston Villa on home soil across all competitions.

To give that some extra context, following the conclusion of the club’s thrilling midweek match against PSG, they’ve now played 2861 home matches throughout their history which highlights just how impressive this current stretch is.

We can also take a look at teams in Europe’s big five leagues when playing on home soil across all competitions and say that Villa’s current run is second only to Internazionale’s. Considering that the Italian outfit are in the midst of another title battle and have reached the semi-final of the Champions League at the expense of Bayern Munich, that’s brilliant company for Villa to be keeping.  

But what’s changed for Emery’s side in that time in order to grab this success?

Well simply put, the Midlands outfit have put their foot to the floor from an attacking perspective which has offset the fact that they’ve not been particularly strong defensively across that stint.

To this point, Villa have netted 36 goals in total across that 18-match streak, the sixth-most of any side across all competitions in Europe’s big five leagues and the second-most of any Premier League outfit behind only Manchester City. That output has been aided by the fact that the Villans have attempted 295 shots in total during that time – with only Bayern Munich and Barcelona having more – whilst their tally of 155 shots on target is again the third-most behind both those previously mentioned clubs.

On top of that, Villa also rank third behind the same two sides for expected goals, creating chances worth 39.5 xG compared to Bayern’s 46.2 and Barca’s 42.8.

As mentioned before, that attacking threat has seriously helped to offset their lack of defensive sturdiness in that time as surprisingly, Villa have faced the fourth-most shots on any side on home soil since late November. To give that some context, their tally of 182 shots conceded in that time is only lower amongst Premier League sides than bottom club Southampton and struggling Tottenham.

They’ve also managed to keep just four clean sheets across that entire run too, highlighting that their defending has hardly been the bedrock for their latest unbeaten tilt on home soil.

What has helped their run is the performance of key individuals who have thrived whilst playing in front of the packed-out crowds at Villa Park. The most important of those has been England international Morgan Rogers, who across those 18 matches, has netted nine of his side’s 36 goals.

That total sees him mixing it with some of the best strikers across Europe in that time on home soil and showcases exactly why some of the biggest clubs in the world are reportedly monitoring his situation ahead of this summer’s upcoming transfer window.

Fellow forward Ollie Watkins has also been crucial to his team’s success over that time and unbeaten run as his seven assists rank him second behind only Lyon wonderkid Rayan Cherki (8). In fact, the Englishman has recorded 13 goal contributions in total in home matches since late November, a tally only Mbappe (15), Salah (14) and Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz (14) can better.

If those individual performances can continue, they should be enough to push Aston Villa towards a top five finish in the Premier League this season come the summer then, but if not, their longest unbeaten run across all competitions since the early 90’s could come crashing down pretty quickly.

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