Emery says 'No excuses' as Aston Villa fail to win at home while North Stand rebuild continues
On Saturday at Villa Park Aston Villa drew 2-2 with Brentford, leaving the club without a home win this season as work on the North Stand continues and head coach Unai Emery insisted, "No excuses."
The North Stand is a shell and currently closed for building work as the club increases the stadium's capacity to over 50,000, a project due to be completed next year designed to help Villa bridge the financial gap in the Premier League and which the club accept may require some short-term pain for long-term gain.
Emery had already "turned the air blue" when describing their defeat to Nottingham Forest last month, and Villa remain without a home victory after Saturday's draw; Ajer scored late to earn the Brentford point and Nicolas Jackson's equaliser was the first goal Villa have scored in front of the skeleton North Stand this season.
Emery addressed the impact of reduced crowd numbers directly, saying: "Our handicap is less supporters for the situation, but the club decided it. It is something to improve us for the future. We must try to be together and without 7,000 supporters we must push everyone. We must play better football, compete better, be more focused. Those are more important than the stand. We are realistic with how we are working, improving. The things are not [good] enough yet, a lot of conversations with the team, meetings, video, practising and each match trying to show and improve."
Defensively Villa have kept just one clean sheet this season and have been increasingly fallible at home, a trend Emery says must be rectified regardless of the stadium work; Champions Arsenal and Forest have already taken three points at Villa Park this season while unbeaten Brentford claimed a point on Saturday.
Villa have a stronger European record at home under Emery, having lost only once — against Olympiacos in the Europa Conference League semi-final in 2024 — and Emery ended their wait for silverware by lifting the Europa League in May. Defender Matty Cash said: "Over the last few years our home form has been amazing, especially in Europe. We need to get back to that. I don't want to sound like I am making excuses, because obviously we have to deal with the circumstances and it is really good to make the stand bigger and the stadium bigger, but it is obviously different. I am not going to sit here and lie and say it isn't but you have to deal with the circumstances. You can't make excuses. You have to play what is in front of you. When it is done it will be amazing but yeah, at the moment it is a bit different."
Fenerbahce visit on Wednesday as Champions League football returns to Villa Park and bring Marcos Asensio, who scored eight goals for Emery's men during a successful loan from Paris St-Germain in 2025; Asensio scored in Saturday's 3-0 win over Rizespor and Fenerbahce have netted 11 goals in their last two games, including an 8-0 victory against Eyupspor, a run that could present a problem for Villa's defence.
Villa's recent home form contrasts with the record Emery established since his arrival: between November 2022 and January 2026 they lost eight of 61 home Premier League games and won 44, a spell that included 15 consecutive victories between March 2023 and December 2023 and a 12-month unbeaten top-flight run between August 2024 and August 2025. Last season defeats by Everton, Brentford, Chelsea and Tottenham threatened their top-four place while late goals were required to salvage results against Leeds, and to beat Brighton and Sunderland; Villa Park's capacity is down to around 37,000 in the void left by the North Stand, a point Brentford boss Keith Andrews noted when he said he hated playing when one stand was missing.
Champions League football returns to Villa Park on Wednesday with Fenerbahce the visitors, and Villa will also host Viking in the league phase on 21 October; after an opening win at Club Brugge successive victories would place them on course for qualification before November.
