Premier League hope-o-meter 2023-24: How every club’s fans are feeling
If you think you’re excited about the start of the new Premier League season, you should speak to an Aston Villa fan. They’re about ready to pop. All of them. Well, almost all of them.
In a survey conducted by The Athletic this week (before the developments on Thursday and Friday which brought the transfers of Moises Caicedo and Harry Kane closer to being completed), we asked how supporters of each of the 20 teams are feeling about the new season. Ninety-nine per cent of Villa respondents said “optimistic”, making them the most positive bunch in the division.
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They’re far higher than fans of treble-winning Manchester City (83%), higher than big-spending Newcastle (91%, down 5% on last year), who they play first, and a world away from Tottenham (79%), who they finished a point above last season.
So what’s going on? Here’s The Athletic’s Villa writer Jacob Tanswell.
“Aston Villa believe they are going places,” he says. “Confidence in a manager has not been as emphatic as it is for Unai Emery for some time, with his work in transforming Villa from relegation candidates less than a year ago to a club aiming to crash the top six, pretty startling.”
Emery is one of three Basque managers in the Premier League this season, with followers of Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth (97%) and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal (90%) also in high spirits. There was a fourth until Tuesday evening, when Julen Lopetegui left Wolves. He had spent much of the summer agitating about his position and has now been replaced by Gary O’Neil. All of which explains why Wolves’ optimism levels (40%) are so low.
Villa’s run from the wrong end of the table to seventh also brought with it the reward of European football. They play a two-legged Europa Conference
Read on theathletic.com
