Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of Natalia Arroyo's appointment at Aston Villa Women. She joined a club low on confidence, low in the table and in desperate need of results. Now, they sit sixth in the WSL and are looking up, not down.
The Spaniard arrived with a knowledge of how to improve a team too. She guided Real Sociedad to a second place finish in Liga F in the 2021/22 season, and the Copa de la Reina final in the 2023/24 campaign - her last at the club.
When Arroyo replaced Robert de Pauw and took over from interim coach Shaun Goater last January, she wrote down her dreams for Aston Villa, from the short term - simply winning games - to the longer term implementation of her own footballing ideas.
"It was a year full of learning points," the head coach exclusively told Sky Sports when reflecting on the last 12 months.
"I knew it was a big challenge for me to change my country, to see myself giving instructions and delivering a training session in another language.
"I also came here in a difficult moment for the team because they were not getting the results, as well as competing in the best league in Europe or maybe in the world.
"We needed some time to adapt to everything and to get the results because we struggled a little bit at the beginning, but that process was good to get to know everybody in the hard moments. That's maybe when you meet the real person and that connects all of us in a way where we are now thinking on building, feeling ready that if things are not going amazing and we don't win, we know how to face it.
"Before me, the team was playing well, just sometimes the mentality of staying in the game when in the last minutes, we are still conceding some goals, but we are finding this consistency.
"I also wanted to be able to bring my ideas to the team so that in every game, against everybody, we were seeing the Aston Villa we wanted to see - being aggressive on the high press, brave with the ball, trying to compete everywhere and against everybody, not necessarily the same way, but showing our style. I think we are achieving this.
"With a fresh restart in the summer, we are building and learning from that [last season] and believing that we want do not repeat that type of season.
"We want to be much more consistent, we want to be much more aggressive in our way of playing, we want to feel that we can compete against everybody, and the small hurdles we find on the way, we want to go through them together. I think we are finding the way.
"The players know me more, I know more of the players, I know the environment, and we are having very great additions in the club. Now that it's nothing new, it's still the same excitement that I have from the beginning, but with much more knowledge."
'Consistency is key to try and disrupt WSL top four'
The next step for Aston Villa will be trying to disrupt the dominant top four clubs. This season, Tottenham are keeping pace in the table, but Arroyo's side have already sprung a few surprises. They secured a late draw at Arsenal in September, before beating Manchester United six weeks later.
They face Marc Skinner's side again this weekend, live on Sky Sports, and the Aston Villa head coach has her own blueprint for trying to shake things up at the top of the WSL.
"When you analyse the league, maybe the first feeling you have is 'okay, there's three or four contenders, they are really fighting for the title'. Even if Chelsea were winning the titles, there were different seasons where it was super tight," Arroyo explained.
"That was the ambition from the beginning, knowing that we are still not there, but we want to be there.
"Our first step is focus on the consistency, winning the type of games we feel we must win and let's try to compete to disrupt these top four, to be able to really make them suffer against us.
"I think we are getting there. We had a few good games - except maybe against Man City (a 6-1 away defeat) - against Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd. We were able to compete really well and take points from there, so that's the challenge.
"The second part is winning the games we are more obligated to win. That will be the only way of staying high in the table and when we are able to repeat that week after week and season after season, we will be in a position where we can think bigger.
"We want this journey to be as short as possible, but we need to be honest and realistic. It's not an overnight thing, so we are focusing on this consistency in everything, in the day-by-day training, in the availability of the training, of the players, in how we are understanding the game model and how we are performing every weekend, so that's the basis of what will come in the future."
January signings could make WSL debuts
Arroyo could hand two Aston Villa WSL debuts to January arrivals Oriane Jean-Francois and Jenna Nishwonger against Man Utd this weekend.
Jean-Francois joined on a club record deal from Chelsea, while Nishwonger has made a loan move from Arsenal where she was struggling for game time.
"We were following Jenna for quite a long time," Arroyo said of the American full-back. "We need a left-footed player that could help us both in attack and defence and having more depth in our squad, so this specific defender dominating the left foot was important for us.
"The fact that she maybe needed us as well as a platform, that was a good combination to give her the trust again and give her a good environment to shine again.
"We were seeing her shining at the beginning when she arrived at Arsenal and before at Gotham, so we are expecting her to, with a bit of time until she gets back to be 100 per cent and feeling really with the rhythm, she can help us.
"It's having more options to have this high-intensity football that we are asking of our wing-backs, so that's part of what we want from Jenna.
"With Oriane, it's the same intention - bringing some depth to the squad, bringing some physicality. It's a very pure defensive profile but with really good qualities in possession, so she can do both.
"She can help us to give balance, she can help us to be consistent, to win duels. We are bringing the game sometimes to these physical battles, so we want our players in the central channel to be strong and she's a very good profile.
"She played an amazing Euros and again, we were following her and it was the opportunity to have her in the squad. We are expecting her to bring her quality, bring her ambition and help us to be stronger as a team."
With January arrivals ready to make their mark, a head coach with a clear vision and sights set on success, Arroyo and Aston Villa are primed for a positive 2026 and beyond.
Watch Aston Villa Women vs Man Utd Women live on Sky Sports+ on Sunday; kick-off 11.55am. Watch in-game clips and free match highlights across Sky Sports' digital platforms.
