Aston Villa's Champions League return after a season away comes with a very different-looking squad. Five of last season's starting XI are no longer at the club, M. Martinez's move to Chelsea and Ollie Watkins' switch to Al-Hilal are due to go through before the deadline, and Unai Emery has little time to settle anything before the league phase begins.
Villa's squad change
The scale of the churn is the big story, not the glamour of the draw on its own. Villa finished fourth in the 2025 Premier League and reached second in the 2025 Europa League final phase, so this is not a team arriving from nowhere. Even so, the current run is mixed, with three wins in their last five and losses to PSG and Brighton in that stretch.
Ollie Watkins remains part of the conversation too. He scored two goals in 101 minutes against Liverpool, and his 9.3 rating in that game showed what Villa can still get from him when he plays centrally. Whether he stays or goes, the late-window uncertainty only adds to Emery's job.
The fixtures waiting for them
Villa will host defending champions Paris Saint Germain and Borussia Dortmund, while trips to Barcelona and Galatasaray give the league phase extra spice. The first league-phase matches will be played on Tuesday, 8 September, so there is not much room for further reshuffling.
PSG's 2025 Champions League finish was 11, Dortmund's was 17 and Barcelona's was 5, which gives Villa a set of opponents that are difficult in different ways. BBC Sport reporter said: "If Emery can add to his squad in what is expected to be a frantic last few days of the transfer window, he can be confident they can progress."
That is the cleanest reading of Villa's draw. The level of the opposition is clear, but the bigger issue is whether the squad Emery sends into it still looks anything like the one that got them back there.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
