Why Aston Villa must now target FA Cup glory under Unai Emery after a surprise EFL Cup loss to Crystal Palace

Aston Villa are out of the EFL Cup after a 2-1 loss at home to Crystal Palace on Wednesday in the round of 16 when a place in the quarterfinals was seemingly beckoning to Unai Emery and his players. Jhon Duran pulled the hosts level after falling behind to Eberechi Eze’s opener in the first half but Daichi Kamada’s second-half effort turned out to be the winner at Villa Park which puts paid to one of two possible routes to domestic cup success for the Villans despite statistically doing enough to advance.

Emery has done a stunning job since taking over the Birmingham giants back in late 2022 which has seen them catapult from relegation candidates in the English Premier League to the UEFA Champions League — yes, really — so it was no surprise that he was linked with Manchester United immediately after Erik ten Hag’s exit. Looking at what the Spanish tactician and Villa can do next together, the aim is arguably regular European qualifications via the EPL as well as improved competitiveness in both the EFL and FA Cups and one of them has gone begging here when it really should not have.

“We want to get a trophy and it is an objective of mine here,” Emery admitted after the Palace loss when asked about his next aims with Villa as he reaches two years in the position. “Last season we played in the UEFA Conference League semifinals and got knocked out of two cups, but we got the most important objective — the UEFA Champions League.”

Ruben Amorim is being lined up for the Old Trafford gig and the Portuguese boss is expected to take it, but Emery being mentioned in the same breath as the Red Devils illustrates the enormity of the work already done by the former Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain head coach. It is now time for Emery and Villa to be bold and go for a domestic cup together to give the Spaniard the legitimate trophy glory that his sensational stint in charge so far arguably deserves for what has been a more or less miraculous turnaround in fortunes at a club that had been a sleeping giants for too long.

Strong starts to the Premier League and Champions League could hardly have been better in truth yet there is still an argument to say that draws against Ipswich Town, Manchester United and Bournemouth all represent six dropped points in total which could have placed them one point better off than leaders Manchester City with even two to four enough for a top three berth. The FA Cup is not yet underway but the EFL Cup is down to the final eight without Villa which does feel like a golden missed opportunity to really go for it as one of the clubs with the richest histories as the joint-fourth winningest League Cup club in England.

“We started with 11 players who are in the first team,” said Emery of the Palace defeat which put paid to Villa’s EFL Cup hopes for another year. “We started with Tyrone (Mings) and Diego (Carlos) — they can play normally in the starting 11. We started with Ian (Maatsen), Boubacar (Kamara), John (McGinn), Jhon (Duran) and Emiliano (Buendia). I do not know if I can have any regrets. We are with our way — building the team, building the structure. Today we competed, but we lost. Of course, I am disappointed and frustrated, but we competed with the players to get the performance. If I am repeating this match 100 times I am playing with the same players.”

It really felt like Villa’s squad depth was sitting up for a serious push and the reawakening of the club’s historic fanbase and its ambitions could have really come into its own for the last eight and potentially onwards but this wasted showing — like others before it — ends those nascent hopes. There was nothing preventing Villa from making a deep run in both domestic cups yet everything is now riding on the FA Cup which is arguably the trickier of the two competitions and the one which has given the Villans a fair bit of grief in recent years, even if Palace’s dubious reward for this victory is a tough trip to face Arsenal at Emirates Stadium.

Emery has awoken the Birmingham-based outfit from their malaise and now this proud club needs to live up to its illustrious domestic history by become a true competitor once again for all domestic titles as it was in the past as 12 combined EFL and FA Cup wins can attest to. Given their incredible success so far, Villa and Emery arguably deserve to make that next step together with the team reaching a final and winning something so that there is tangible evidence of the phenomenal work done by Emery and his staff with failure to do so likely to tempt others to try to lure him away from Villa Park in the future.