Thomas Hitzlsperger: Why it will take Aston Villa time to achieve Unai Emery’s real Champions League aim

I’m not just a former Aston Villa player, I’m a fan too.

I love going back to Villa Park – I was there to watch Villa beat West Ham in the FA Cup earlier this month.

You can see something special building at the club and also the owners’ and Emery’s vision of where they want to be, which is winning trophies and playing in the Champions League every season.

They are still on course for all of that, despite not quite hitting the heights of last year, but maybe we do need to remember where they have come from in such a short space of time.

We have seen so many games since Emery took charge where they were absolutely brilliant, but to do that twice a week is more or less impossible right now.

While they have a good squad, Villa have not spent the sort of money that Manchester City, Liverpool or Arsenal have done, or the big European teams that are also Champions League regulars.

Overall, I think most fans are patient enough to realise that and say, look, this is still good – although I can understand why they might have been disappointed by Sunday’s display against the Hammers.

I watched that game for MOTD2 and it was similar to other games this season in that we saw flashes of Villa at their best, but it also demonstrated how difficult the Premier League is.

West Ham are in the bottom half of the table but their new manager Graham Potter brings a lot of energy and tactical expertise, and made it a tough test.

The opposition is always learning and evolving and, once they catch you up, you have to get better again.

Emery has made that point himself on several occasions, and the challenge for Villa is to make sustained improvement, and stay one step ahead.

That’s hard because the other teams are constantly analysing Villa’s success, so they know them much better now and no-one underestimates them any more.

Instead, they try to find a way to stop them playing, which is what Potter’s West Ham did so effectively to deal with Villa’s threat through the middle.