"No excuses." That was Unai Emery's line as Aston Villa dealt with a home start that has already turned awkward. Villa have yet to win at home this season after Saturday's 2-2 draw with Brentford, while the North Stand is closed for building work and the club is increasing the stadium's capacity to over 50,000.

Emery's message on Villa Park

Emery did not pretend the rebuild is irrelevant. "Our handicap is less supporters for the situation, but the club decided it. It is something to improve us for the future," he said, and added: "We must try to be together and without 7,000 supporters we must push everyone. We must play better football, compete better, be more focused. Those are more important than the stand."

That is not a denial of the rebuild. It is a refusal to let it become the explanation for everything. Villa's home record across a longer stretch makes the current wobble look more striking, with 44 wins in 61 home Premier League games between November 2022 and January 2026 and only eight defeats in that run.

The drop-off is still hard to miss. Villa had 15 straight home wins between March 2023 and December 2023, then went 12 months unbeaten in the top flight between August 2024 and August 2025. This season's opening stretch has been far less convincing, with Villa sitting 16th in the Premier League with five points from six matches.

Cash on the missing stand

Matty Cash took the same line in more ordinary words. "I don't want to sound like I am making excuses, because obviously we have to deal with the circumstances and it is really good to make the stand bigger and the stadium bigger, but it is obviously different," he said. "I am not going to sit here and lie and say it isn't but you have to deal with the circumstances. You can't make excuses. You have to play what is in front of you. When it is done it will be amazing but yeah, at the moment it is a bit different."

Cash also pointed to what Villa have lost at home in recent years and what they want back. "Over the last few years our home form has been amazing, especially in Europe. We need to get back to that," he said. "That is the bar we have set for ourselves. Hopefully we can make it loud - three-stand loud."

That is the part Villa will hope to lean on when the Champions League returns on Wednesday, with Fenerbahçe visiting Villa Park. Villa beat Club Brugge in their opening Champions League game and can move towards qualification before November with successive victories, so the atmosphere issue is not the only thing Emery's side is trying to manage.

What matters most for Villa is simple enough. Emery is demanding standards, Cash is asking for no excuses, and the home record now has to recover while the North Stand stays shut and the stadium work continues.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →