Quite how Aston Villa lost this encounter from a position of such authority and on the back of a five-match winning run, in all competitions, will be a concern to Unai Emery. For much of the first half the Spaniard watched his players fail to take advantage of opportunities to put the game beyond opponents who sit 12th in the Dutch top flight.

The result saw Villa suffer their first defeat in nine games across all competitions (W5 D3), having come into Thursday's match on a five-game winning streak

Monchi has stepped down from his role as President of Football Operations at Villa Park, with Roberto Olabe replacing him in September 2025. Prior to his exit, he worked closely with Unai Emery and recently revealed he nearly brought Marco Asensio back to Aston Villa after a loan spell during the 2024/25 season.

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has explained what Harvey Elliott has to do to gain more minutes after spending lots of time on the bench since leaving Liverpool this summer

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery discusses the tactical change happening in football right now – and why Thomas Franks Tottenham highlight that shift ahead of the Premier League meeting between the two teams on Super Sunday;

Unai Emery expressed his thoughts on a 2-1 defeat for Aston Villa at Go Ahead Eagles.

Before Sunday's match, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery admitted Morgan Rogers had not been "performing very well, not confident" at the start of the campaign, but said he was "getting better and feeling confident".