​Emery knows young recruits must adapt quickly after Villa's poor start

Unai Emery knows the young players that have joined Aston Villa in this summer's overhaul must adapt quickly, ahead of their Premier League trip to Hull City on Saturday.

Having finished fourth in the Premier League and won the Europa League in 2025-26, Villa sanctioned the sales of Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne and Emiliano Martinez.

While Villa's sales raised almost £300m, they spent just under that amount on a host of new players, with Johan Manzambi, Nicolas Jackson, Ibrahim Mbaye, Joao Gomes, Zion Suzuki, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Matteo Ruggeri and Modu Keba Cisse their permanent incoming transfers.

Leon Goretzka came in on a free, while Alejandro Garnacho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka arrived on initial loan deals from Chelsea and West Ham, respectively.

Of the players Villa paid a fee for this summer, Gomes – at the age of 25 – is the oldest, but with Emery's men losing their opening two games of the season to nil, he knows his new recruits will get little in the way of a grace period.

"A lot of young players with huge potential. Some can show that potential quickly and some will take time," Emery said of Villa's summer business. 

"But, we are very motivated and very excited about how we can get back and keep the same level we had in the Premier League.

"We want to win and we want to build as strong a team as possible again, and get the structure collectively and individually strong, to be a winner, to be very competitive."

While Villa went down 4-0 to Brighton and 1-0 to Arsenal in their first two matches of the Premier League season, Hull have beaten Manchester United 2-0 and Coventry City 1-0 in a dream start.

They could now become only the second promoted club to start a Premier League campaign with three wins, after Bolton Wanderers did so in 2001-02.

Boss Sergej Jakirovic, who confirmed on Friday that he had taken the "easy decision" to sign a new contract with the Tigers, has also overseen an exceptionally busy transfer window, with six arrivals on deadline day taking their total business to 18 new players.

"It's finally finished, thank God! Now we can concentrate on our jobs," Jakirovic told reporters.

"I am pleased because we have worked very hard these last two months, making a lot of calls, a lot of negotiations with players. 

"We always had our plan to bring quality that we could improve our team, but don't forget we also lost 12 players from last season, so we needed these players."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Hull City – Semi Ajayi

Half of Hull's shots on target in the Premier League this season have been by centre-backs (3/6 – Nobel Mendy has two, Oli McBurnie two, Ajayi one and Liam Millar one).

Ajayi can offer a threat from set-pieces – as Man Utd discovered on matchday one – and he also won five of his seven duels in Hull's win at Coventry last week.

Aston Villa – Nicolas Jackson

Villa have lost their last four Premier League matches that haven't featured Watkins, now of Al-Hilal, by an aggregate score of 10-1. 

Their last victory without Watkins in the competition dates back to 13 November 2022, a 2-1 win at Brighton in Emery's second game in charge.

Jackson did not have a single shot on his Villa debut against Arsenal, and if he is to fill Watkins' boots, he must offer more of a goal threat moving forwards.

MATCH PREDICTION – ASTON VILLA WIN 

This is the first meeting between Hull and Villa in any competition since a 2-2 draw in the Championship in January 2019 – the Tigers have won just one of their last 16 games against Villa (D4 L11).

In the Premier League, Villa have won six of their eight matches against Hull (D1 L1), though their only defeat came in the teams' last such meeting in February 2015 (0-2 away).

And though Villa are the only side yet to have a shot on target in the Premier League this season – no team has gone through their first three games without an attempt on target since Opta records began in 2003-04 – the Opta supercomputer makes them favourites.

Villa boss Emery has never faced Hull before in the Premier League – he has beaten 27 of the 28 teams he has faced in the competition, failing only against Ipswich Town (D2). 

Emery has also never lost a game with Villa against a promoted side (W15 D6).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Hull City – 24.5%

Aston Villa – 49.9%

Draw – 25.6%