Just days after the departure of their most inspirational player in a generation, ambitious Aston Villa will embark on their third Premier League season since promotion back to the big time in 2019.
While the chief architect of their revival has now moved on, Villa will be keen to prove there is life after Jack Grealish, the beloved fans' favourite and academy product. By way of compensation, a raft of new signings have been made, with an assault on the top half of the table in mind.
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Here, Sports Mole previews Villa's 2021-22 campaign and considers whether the Midlands club can improve upon their 11th-placed finish last term.
FIXTURES
Though much of the clubs' personnel has changed in the intervening year, there will be no love lost when Aston Villa get their season underway at Watford, as the Villans were instrumental in sending them down due to a miraculous post-lockdown comeback at the end of the 2019-20 season - not to mention an enduring and intensely felt relationship between Hornets captain Troy Deeney and the Villa fans.
Following games with Newcastle and Brentford - making up an opening trio of fixtures against teams expected to finish in the league's bottom half - the task facing manager Dean Smith becomes significantly more daunting. During a six-week spell in September and October, Villa will meet Chelsea, Everton, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal - after which, much more will be known about the extent of their ability to match last term's impressive achievements.
They clash with the European champions again on Boxing Day - this time at Villa Park - before another apparently kinder run of fixtures, versus teams such as Brighton, Southampton and Watford, across February and March.
Following West Brom's relegation, there are no major derbies for the Villa fans to look forward to, but they do meet with fellow Midlands side Wolves in mid-October and at the start of April - the second game preceding a tricky late-season run that features Spurs, Liverpool and Leicester within the space of a fortnight. However, Smith's side will then conclude the campaign versus Norwich, Burnley and Crystal Palace respectively.
> Click here to see all of Aston Villa's 2021-22 fixtures
SUMMER SIGNINGS
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In
Emiliano Buendia (£34.6m, Norwich City)
Ashley Young (free, Inter Milan)
Leon Bailey (£28.8m, Bayer Leverkusen)
Danny Ings (£31.7m, Southampton)
Axel Tuanzebe (loan, Manchester United)
Out
Ahmed Elmohamady (released)
Tom Heaton (free, Manchester United)
Neil Taylor (released)
Mbwana Samatta (£5.4m, Fenerbahce)
Callum Rowe (free, Exeter City)
Bjorn Engels (undisclosed, Royal Antwerp)
Indiana Vassilev (loan, Inter Miami)
Kaine Kesler (loan, Swindon Town)
Louie Barry (loan, Ipswich Town)
Jack Grealish (£100m, Manchester City)
Aston Villa total spent to date: £95m
Aston Villa total received to date: £105.4m
Aston Villa net transfer balance: £10.4m
SQUAD
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Goalkeepers: Emiliano Martinez, Jed Steer, Akos Onodi, Oliwer Zych
Defenders: Axel Tuanzebe, Ashley Young, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings, Matt Targett, Frederic Guilbert, Kortney Hause, Myles Sohna, Sil Swinkels, Frankie Ealing, Josh Feeney, Dominic Revan
Midfielders: Emiliano Buendia, Douglas Luiz, John McGinn, Conor Hourihane, Bertrand Traore, Marvelous Nakamba, Anwar El Ghazi, Morgan Sanson, Jacob Ramsey, Harrison Sohna, Jaden Philogene-Bidace, Ben Chrisene, Carney Chukwuemeka, Kaine Hayden, Lamar Bogarde
Forwards: Leon Bailey, Danny Ings, Wesley, Ollie Watkins, Trezeguet, Keinan Davis
> Click here for full details of Aston Villa's 2021-22 squad
STRONGEST XI
STAR PLAYER - John McGinn
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Adored by fans and management alike, John McGinn is an indefatigable midfield dynamo, whose enthusiasm knows no bounds.
Equally at home making crunching challenges and taking spectacular long-range shots, the former Hibernian man has already accrued more than 30 Scotland caps and has settled into Premier League life with apparent ease since his side's promotion in 2019.
McGinn presses and harries opponents endlessly, making him a nightmare to play against, but can also start attacks from the deeper midfield role he has often been asked to play in order to accommodate others. Not only that, but his unique physicality helps him draw fouls from frustrated opposition players - a 'talent' he shares with good friend Jack Grealish.
As much as Martinez and Mings mean to the Villa defence, and the tireless Watkins brings to the attack, it is McGinn who represents the beating heart of the team and can be their driving force again this season.
MANAGER - Dean Smith
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A life-long Aston Villa fan, Dean Smith has proved the perfect match for the club whose terraces he used to clean alongside his late father, a Villa Park steward.
Since taking over from Steve Bruce - who had stabilised a tanking team that had fallen into sharp decline - Smith has led the Lions back into the Premier League via a memorable victory in the Championship playoff final, before narrowly keeping them afloat and then building a competitive top-tier squad.
Always magnanimous in victory or defeat, the former Walsall and Leyton Orient defender surrounds himself with assistants that work closely together in a considered decision-making process. Some of those he has shared a training ground with include his successor as Brentford boss, Thomas Frank, former Leicester manager Craig Shakespeare - who is now on the staff at Bodymoor Heath - and John Terry, before the latter left to pursue his own managerial ambitions earlier this summer.
Naturally attack-minded and ambitious, Smith has often spoken of handing responsibility to players - noting that he did not enjoy spells in his playing career when told to play cautiously - but has also put in a lot of work on firming up the Villa rearguard since a transformative period during football's pandemic-induced shutdown. That break enabled the West Bromwich-born boss to realign his priorities without ditching firmly held principles.
As his career has progressed, so has his win-rate, as each time Smith has stepped up in class - from Walsall, to Brentford, then to Villa - he has improved his personal stats in that regard. His success rate at his boyhood club stands at an impressive 40% from his 126 matches in charge.
LAST SEASON - 11th
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Having survived by the skin of their teeth in the summer of 2020, Villa ultimately finished last season with a 20-point improvement on their previous campaign - climbing six places to 11th.
A scarcely credible 7-2 victory over league champions Liverpool was the undoubted highlight of a season which started in a blaze of glory but flickered only intermittently in the spring, when chief creator and club talisman Jack Grealish was sidelined by injury.
Having won only two of the 12 league matches Grealish missed, Villa still posted their best top-flight finish since 2011 - when this summer's veteran signing Ashley Young was a fresh-faced winger at the B6 club - due largely to some canny recruitment over the past two years.
Dean Smith could turn to a reliable goalscorer in all-action striker Ollie Watkins - who excelled in his first Premier League season, with 14 goals - a rock-solid stopper in Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, and a well-balanced all-English back line; comprising Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa, Matt Targett and Matty Cash.
All of which helped rebuild pride among a success-deprived fanbase, while beginning to fulfil the owners' ambitious aims of progressing up the league and into Europe in the coming years.
PREDICTION
Of course, re-modelling your attack in the lamented absence of your most influential player by far is not necessarily the ideal way to start a season. It certainly remains to be seen whether Dean Smith's new recruits can collectively fill the gap left by Jack Grealish, but at least Villa's over-reliance on the England playmaker will end, causing - or allowing - others to step up to the plate.
With an established back four and a Copa America-winning goalkeeper who rates among the best in the league, the foundations remain in place for Villa to enjoy further progress this season, with a top-half finish certainly achievable for an expensively assembled squad.
Furthermore, the club's coaching staff have distinctly improved players on an individual level in the past two seasons - during which they have accumulated some valuable Premier League experience - and that can continue for the likes of Konsa, Targett, Cash and Watkins across this new campaign.
A forward line featuring the latter, plus Buendia, Bailey and Ings, is a match for any defence in the division, so improving on their main weakness - regularly finding the net - could be the key to a push for European football next term.
VERDICT: Eighth
Jonathan O'Shea
