{"id":298605,"date":"2023-12-07T10:24:53","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T10:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=298605"},"modified":"2023-12-07T10:24:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T10:24:53","slug":"aston-villa-was-not-a-happy-place-at-all-under-steven-gerrard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/aston-villa-was-not-a-happy-place-at-all-under-steven-gerrard\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Villa &apos;was not a happy place AT ALL under Steven Gerrard&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1> Former Aston Villa striker claims that the club&#8217;s training ground &#8216;wasn\u2019t a happy place&#8217; under Steven Gerrard &#8211; as he credits Unai Emery for transforming the side&#8217;s fortunes after their dominant 1-0 win over Man City<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Steven Gerrard lasted just 11 months at Villa Park before his sacking last October\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Villa have been transformed under Emery and eye a Champions League place\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Man City are vulnerable, but come the spring they will put on the afterburners. Leaders Arsenal must seize their moment now &#8211; Listen to It&#8217;s All Kicking Off\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Former Aston Villa striker Andy Gray has claimed that Villa Park &#8216;wasn&#8217;t a happy place at all&#8217; under previous manager Steven Gerrard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Villans continued their remarkable start to the season with a\u00a01-0 win against Manchester City on Wednesday that took them above Pep Guardiola&#8217;s side into third in the Premier League.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, the club&#8217;s resurgence began long before the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign and in fact stretches back to the arrival of Unai Emery in November last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under the Spaniard, Villa have gone from a relegation-threatened outfit to one with genuine aspirations to qualify for the\u00a0Champions league, if not more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This, according to their ex-striker Gray, highlights the stark change from the previous regime at the club, which he believes was marked by a feeling of unhappiness.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/09\/78683025-12836455-Andy_Gray_left_has_revealed_that_Villa_Park_was_an_unhappy_place-a-5_1701940702286.jpg\" height=\"336\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Andy Gray (left) has revealed that Villa Park was an unhappy place under Steven Gerrard<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/08\/78682415-12836455-image-a-1_1701939540541.jpg\" height=\"399\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Steven Gerrard was sacked by the club following a poor start to the 2023-24 season that left them just above the drop zone<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/09\/78665843-12836455-Unai_Emery_s_high_flying_Villa_side_leapfrogged_City_to_climb_to-a-20_1701940813459.jpg\" height=\"422\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Unai Emery&#8217;s high-flying Villa side leapfrogged City to climb to third in the Premier League<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The whole place didn\u2019t take a lot to make it happy, he said on beIN Sports. &#8216;With the previous incumbent it wasn\u2019t a happy place at Villa Park at all.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It wasn\u2019t a happy place, Bodymoor Heath was not a good place to be going training when Steven was there.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The Liverpool legend was dismissed 11 games into the campaign last season\u00a0with a record of six defeats and two wins.\u00a0Gerrard now manages Saudi Pro League side\u00a0Al Ettifaq.<\/p>\n<p>Gray added: &#8216;I speak to people in the area and what he\u2019s doing is, he tried four or five different systems during pre-season, and if you look at his teams he thinks about every game, and although he doesn\u2019t make many changes, he does at the back depending on who he\u2019s playing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He\u2019s turned the whole thing around, I have to say. The Villa fans have bought into all this and they are loving what they\u2019re seeing, it\u2019s as simple as that.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Villa&#8217;s title-winning credential face another huge test on Saturday when they face league leaders Arsenal at Villa Park.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12836455\/Aston-Villa-not-happy-place-Steven-Gerrard-says-Andy-Gray-Unai-Emery.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Aston Villa striker claims that the club&#8217;s training ground &#8216;wasn\u2019t a happy place&#8217; under Steven Gerrard &#8211; as he credits Unai Emery for transforming the side&#8217;s fortunes after their dominant 1-0 win over Man City Steven Gerrard lasted just 11 months at Villa Park before his sacking last October\u00a0 Villa have been transformed under [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Aston Villa &amp;apos;was not a happy place AT ALL under Steven Gerrard&amp;apos; - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/aston-villa-was-not-a-happy-place-at-all-under-steven-gerrard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aston Villa &amp;apos;was not a happy place AT ALL under Steven Gerrard&amp;apos; 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