Freibury 0-3 Aston Villa: Unai Emery wins a fifth Europa League final with goal from Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans and Emi Buendia

The scale of Emery’s Aston Villa revolution cannot be underestimated.

When the Spaniard took charge on November 1, 2022, Villa were 16th in the Premier League, two places and one point above the relegation zone.

They won 15 of 25 league matches to finish seventh and earn a place in European competition for the first time since 2010–11.

In his debut season, Emery secured Champions League football for Villa for the first time since 1982–83. His team also won 15 consecutive home games; this was the highest win in its 151-year history.

And now, with Champions League football secured once again, Villa have become continental champions for the first time in a generation.

Former Villa midfielder Mark Albrighton told BBC Radio 5 Live that Emery had “taken Villa to the next level”.

He said: “There will be ups and downs, that is the nature of football.

“Villa had some of those dips but now they’ve gone on a massive rise. Unai Emery was a step up from what they had before.”

Another former Villa player, Ashley Young, told Radio 5 Live: “As soon as Unai Emery arrived at Aston Villa, the players saw what he had done in his career, the Europa Leagues he had won and the clubs he had managed.

“He was a big personality and wanted to change the culture and he did it immediately.

“The players embraced it and wanted to take it further and it just got stronger and stronger.”

There are more teams now working the way Emery works, with managers who study what he studies and who stay up late watching football they don’t actually have to watch.

But Emery will continue to go one step further, as he always does.