Sir Alex Ferguson predicted Aston Villa's incredible season in August

Tom Weber

Updated: 9 Dec 2023 18:43 GMT
3 min read

Unai Emery, Aston Villa, new badge — © ProShots

Sir Alex Ferguson already knew back in August that Aston Villa were set for a spectacular campaign.

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Unai Emery's Villans have been the biggest (positive) surprise of the season so far in the Premier League. The Basque manager has turned Villa into serious contenders for a Champions League spot and, at this stage, you have to consider them in the title race as they are just a couple of points shy of the top of the table.

Villa Park in particular has become a a veritable fortress under Emery, with his side unbeaten in 14 home games before their summit clash with Arsenal. During that spectacular run, even Man City found themselves on the receiving end of something that can only be described as a paddling despite only losing 1-0.

Aston Villa are no joke this season and legendary Man Utd manager Sir Alex Ferguson already saw this coming back in August - despite the Birmingham side having just been demolished 5-1 by Newcastle at the time.

What did Ferguson say?

During a brief appearance on NBC Sports in August, the 81-year-old was asked which team had surprised him the most up to that early point in the season and the Scot replied with Emery's Villans.

"I watched Aston Villa and Newcastle and I can't believe the [5-1] scoreline. Honestly, Aston Villa played fantastic football and just lost bad goals. Newcastle [are] very difficult, being in their own ground in particular and the manager's done a great job there."

"It's a surprising game, football. You can play teams off the pitch but don't score and that's why I'm going with Aston Villa." Not everything Ferguson said during that interview was spot on, however, as he also asserted that Erik ten Hag was doing a fantastic job at Man Utd, but we will cut him some slack!