Despite some recent shaky form, Aston Villa fans will be hoping that 2025 is another successful year after 2024 saw Unai Emery’s men amazingly clinch Champions League football.
Of course, that added competition to the already busy fixture list could have well have a negative impact on their form in the Premier League to date, with the Villans somewhat underperforming domestically in a lacklustre ninth spot.
There is still plenty of football to be played, however, with Emery all too aware now that Morgan Rogers will be key to his side climbing up the division heading into a frantic January.
Morgan Rogers’ form this season
After a promising first season donning claret and blue saw the 22-year-old pick up three strikes from 11 top-flight games, Rogers has truly kicked on to reach even loftier heights this campaign.
In the Premier League alone, the ex-Manchester City youngster turned Villa superstar has amassed six goals and three assists, with his last goal coming just last match to gift the Villans a slender 2-1 lead versus Brighton and Hove Albion before the Seagulls mounted a late fight-back.Plenty more will be anticipated from Rogers in 2025, who managed to win himself a new Villa contract and a senior England call-up in 2024 after dazzling countless top-flight defences with his trickery on the ball.
Emery will no doubt want more players of a similar calibre to Rogers to boost his team’s chances of leaping up the table, but he might not need to go shopping in January to add in that quality, with a homegrown gem making quite the impact in the youth ranks.
The Aston Villa teen outscoring Rogers
Staggeringly, teen ace Bradley Burrowes is outscoring Rogers playing for both the U18s and U21s this season, as Villa look to have found yet another golden wonderkid through their academy system.
Obviously, Rogers wasn’t plucked off the Villa production line having been purchased from Middlesbrough last year, but Burrowes will hope he can follow in the footsteps of the likes of Jack Grealish in making a name for himself at his boyhood club for being a skilful and explosive attacking midfielder.In total, Burrowes has found the back of the net a very impressive nine times this season playing in a whole plethora of different competitions, which beats Rogers’ total for the season by three, albeit at youth level.Moreover, one of those strikes actually came in the Premier League 2 off the back of the 16-year-old being deemed worthy of an opportunity at that level after tearing the U18 league to shreds.That late effort versus Southampton back in September showcases the raw pace of Burrowes on the break and his ability to slot home chances confidently, leading to U23 football scout Antonio Mango labelling the England U17 international as “exceptional.”It does feel unlikely that the 16-year-old would be bumped up to the senior picture soon, but it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to see him blessed with some first-team opportunities down the line, considering Grealish was gifted his Villans senior debut at the tender age of 18.After all, it would mean Emery and Co didn’t have to fork out wild sums of money attempting to bolster the attacking positions this January, knowing that there are many top talents emerging up the ranks at Villa Park
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