Thomas Frank offered his thoughts on Aston Villa this campaign.
The Villans had a sluggish start to the season, losing 1-0 to Brentford, going down to ten men in a 0-0 draw with Newcastle United, and suffering a 3-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace as August ended.
A 0-0 draw at **Everton**and a 1-1 stalemate with Sunderland, who had gone down to ten men at the Stadium of Light, were not much better results. The team finally earned their first triumph of the Premier League campaign against Fulham, backing up the result with a 2-1 win against **Burnley**at Villa Park.
Villa have also beaten **Bologna**1-0 and **Feyenoord**2-0 to make a solid start to their Europa League journey. The performances have still not been pulsating, but Emery has stayed faithful to his ideas, and his group have earned praise from Frank, who respects the quality that is still in their ranks.
*“When I see them performing and their structure and the way they play, I see a lot of the same that I've seen from an **Unai Emery*Villa team in the last three seasons. I see a lot of the same strengths. They're very, very good in the build-up and in phase two and have fantastic structure.
*“They're very composed and have fantastic players. We know Morgan Rogers is doing fantastic, Ollie Watkins, Donyell Malen is starting to score goals, Amadou Onana in midfield, Boubacar Kamara, I know Tielemans is injury, but that's a top team. The back four is very good as well.*
“It's a team and you can see they're growing. I expect an unbelievable, tight game on Sunday that we're very positive about and that we will do everything to edge. We hope and I believe we can, but it will be a strong test on Sunday.”