1 day ago
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2nd in Premier League
©IMAGO
If there were still any doubts over Aston Villa’s remarkable rise to prominence in the Premier League this season they were well and truly put to rest at the weekend when Unai Emery’s side picked up all three points with a 2-0 win over Newcastle, claiming their first win at St James’ Park since 2005. "The players were extraordinary," the Villa head coach told the BBC after the match. "We spoke about this match and the difficulties some teams have with their level here. It is the highest level we can face this season and the players respond fantastic.”
Emery would be forgiven for running out of compliments and superlatives to describe his side. With the win over Newcastle, Villa kept up their remarkable push towards the top of the Premier League table. Emery’s side have now won 11 of their last 13 league games and not only sit level with Manchester City’s star-studded side on 46 points after 23 games, but also sit just four points off league leaders Arsenal. And it isn’t just the league table that underlines how impressive a job the Villa Park side are doing in the English top-flight this season.
Indeed, what makes Villa’s success in the league this season so impressive is the simple fact that their squad is one of the cheapest assembled teams in the English top-flight. When we calculate the total transfer fees paid for every player in Emery’s squad (i.e their “purchase value”) it comes to €418 million - which is only the tenth highest figure in the Premier League this season. Not only is that less than West Ham (€441m) and Nottingham Forest’s (€433m) but it’s also €311m less than the transfer fees Newcastle paid for their squad. And when we use those figures to calculate which clubs have seen the best return for their investments in the transfer window, we get a table like the one below.
As we can see, Villa have one of the most impressive cost-per-point figures in the Premier League this season having spent just €9.1m per point won in the league campaign. Only two clubs - Sunderland and Fulham - can lay claim to better returns on and off the pitch and, as we can see, the Villa Park side’s return is almost three times less than Man City’s and half what Arsenal have spent to obtain the points they’ve achieved this season. In other words, few clubs have done more with less than Emery’s team this season.
However, it isn’t just this season that has seen Villa take a frugal approach to the transfer market. Alongside making a small profit of €4.7m from player transfers this season, the club also earned a €42m profit from player transfers last season too. As such, over the course of the last five seasons the Birmingham club have racked up a minimal net spend bill of just €92m in the transfer market. That, unsurprisingly, is considerably less than their other top-six opponents, with Villa actually ranking 18th among all other English clubs for the highest net spend over the course of the last five seasons. Of course, that may alter slightly before the end of the month, but it’s unlikely to change the fact that Villa’s net spend is a mere fraction of what clubs like West Ham and Tottenham have spent, never mind the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester United.
As such, Emery is effectively working with the tenth most expensively assembled squad in the Premier League, for a club that has spent less money in the transfer market than 17 other English sides. Such figures would point to a club that would be happy to finish in mid-table, never mind challenge for a top four spot and be within grasp of first place, but that simply underlines how impressive Villa have been in recent months. And, as the final graph above illustrates, 46 points won at this stage of the season is the joint-second best return for a Villa team in the history of the Premier League - bettered only by Martin O’Neill’s side in the 2008/09 campaign. However, Villa haven’t finished second in the league since 1993 and if they were to achieve such a feat in May, it would truly be something special for fans of the club.
