After 2-1 success at Basel in the last Europa League game of 2025, We continued that impressive form in the League winning 4, drawing 1 and just a 4-1 defeat at Arsenal. We also won at Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the 3rd round of FA Cup. Then came the injuries…

Losing Amadou Onana to injury in the Arsenal game was bad but the next two major injuries has threatened to undo all that good work of the season. Boubacar Kamara was our rock in the Defensive Midfield area and is almost indispensable to the team. A needless tackle by Tottenham’s Paulinha to his knee, which didn’t seem to serious at first, has now been predicted to miss the rest of the season.

To compound to Midfield injuries, John McGinn went off after 10 minutes last Sunday and his lack of presence shook the whole team. We fell to our 2nd home league defeat to Everton (1-0) and missed the opportunity to go into second and cut Arsenal’s lead at the top to 4 points.

Transfer news has been slow for us but there our some potential names coming in including Ruben Loftus-Creek, for the necessary cover at DM and possible move to be reunited with Tammy Abraham, a man who’s 25 goals helped us to win promotion back to Premier League in 2019.

Our final away game of league stage of Europa League, sees us travel to Turkey to play Fenerbahce. A side who we previously met in the old Uefa Cup in 1977/78 season, winning 6-0 on aggregate including 2-0 win in Turkey.

We start the night in 3rd place with 15 points and win, would just about seal a top 8 finish and safe passage to the last 16 round in March.

Fenerbahce are in 11th place on 11 points and are currently unbeaten at home, picking up 7 points out of 9. There is also strong possibility of reunion with two Villa players who were part of our Champions League campaign last season.

The unpredictable Jhon Duran, scored some memorable goals during his 2 year stay at Villa Park. His attitude and unpredictable though counted again him, seeing him moved to Saudi League to play for Al-Nassr last year. He is currently on loan at Fenerbahce.

It was last January, where we brought Marco Asensio on loan from PSG. He brought skill, flair and plenty of crucial goals including netting 3 times over the 5-1 win on aggregate over Club Brugge in last 16 of Champions League. He wasn’t signed however and he moved to Turkish side in the Summer.

Once more, Emi Martinez won’t be in the side tonight, so Marco Bizot will be in the sticks again. Other then that, there won’t be too much difference to the squad that played Everton. Since last Europa League, Donyell Malen has joined Roma whilst we recalled Leon Bailey back, who was on loan there.

Exciting stage of the year but the nerves and the problems are starting to mount up. A positive result will be a step in the right direction ahead of the trip to Newcastle United on Sunday before our final Europa League stage game at home to RB Salzburg next week.