For the first time in since the UEFA Champions League competition was rebranded in 1992, Aston Villa will play in club football's most prestigious competition and the manager that'll lead them in the competition is no other than the very experienced Unai Emery. The former Sevilla boss is the most successful manager in the history of the UEFA Europa League competition but when it comes to the Champions League, he's yet to record any success. The quality of players at Aston Villa is strong enough to have a good campaign in the competition but I don't think they're strong enough to get past the quarter final stage.
The other clubs that aren't regular in the competition such a Girona, Bologna and Bayer Leverkusen I think also stands a good chance of making it outside the group stage of the competition
Emery did a good thing by being able to bring Aston Villa to the Champions League while emphasizing that Emery is currently one of the dark horse specialist coaches.
I'm honestly looking forward to this season's Champions League because after seeing some surprise clubs like Leverkusen, Aston Villa, Girona, Bologna and Atalanta it's pretty clear that this season will be a bit different.
Especially for Aston Villa this could be a pretty serious dark horse because although Emery is a coach who lacks trophies but indeed we don't need to doubt the playing style of the club he is in charge of even when he coached Villarreal, Emery was able to bring Villarreal to win the Europa League and get to the Champions League semi-finals so for now there is certainly great hope for Aston Villa in making a good breakthrough in the Champions League.
For Leverkusen and Girona are also the same, at this time they still have to be required to show good performance because indeed they were really impressive last season so this season they will clearly be in the lyrics of many people.