Alejandro Garnacho\u2019s attempt to reset his career at Villa Park has taken an awkward turn, with Unai Emery making clear the winger is not yet in position to claim a regular role.<\/p>\n
After Villa\u2019s Carabao Cup win over Coventry City, Emery offered a stark assessment. Garnacho, he said, must \u201cwork, work, train, work.\u201d He added that the 22-year-old needs to \u201ctry and play well\u201d when chances arrive, but also stressed that there are \u201cplayers in front of him now.\u201d<\/p>\n
That has left Garnacho in a difficult spot. He was on the bench against Coventry even with Emery rotating heavily, and his recent involvement suggests he is slipping further down the order. Across Villa\u2019s first three Premier League matches, he managed only 31 minutes. Last weekend, in the loss to Nottingham Forest, he was an unused substitute.<\/p>\n
Emery explained that Garnacho is \u201ca little bit behind\u201d because of some \u201c[injury] circumstances we had in preseason,\u201d adding: \u201cIt is time to be patient for the time he needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The competition around him is not helping. Emery praised George Hemmings as \u201cfantastic,\u201d said Alysson is improving his \u201cunderstanding\u201d and is \u201cgiving us things I want,\u201d and noted that Ibrahim Mbaye \u201calso responded well.\u201d The numbers underline the picture: Hemmings has played 540 minutes in all competitions, Alysson 137, Mbaye 91, while Garnacho has only 31.<\/p>\n
Villa\u2019s broader situation only sharpens the problem. Even while results remain poor, Garnacho is still not starting. At 22, and with several seasons of Premier League experience, he should be setting the standard rather than chasing it.<\/p>\n
Garnacho arrived after leaving Manchester United in 2025 for Chelsea, but his spell there did not convince. He made 43 appearances, started only 14 league games, and half of his eight goals came in the Carabao Cup. He was later omitted from the 2026 World Cup after not receiving a call-up in almost two years.<\/p>\n
When his loan move from Chelsea was completed in July, reports said the buy obligation was conditional but \u201ceasily achievable.\u201d That detail now feels more uncomfortable than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emery has challenged Garnacho again, with the winger struggling for starts and slipping down Villa’s pecking order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,190,179],"tags":[1066,180,182],"class_list":["post-19664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-chelsea","category-manchester-united","tag-carabao-cup","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}