After four straight victories to close out August, September began with a bump for Aston Villa at Anfield.
Liverpool proved too strong on Merseyside, running out 3-0 winners thanks to goals from Dominik Szoboszlai, Mo Salah and the unfortunate Matty Cash.
Emery remained upbeat in his post-match interview, saying: “The Premier League is 38 matches. We are going to try in our process, try to improve and try as well now to take our challenge at home against Crystal Palace still being strong in our mind.”
Villa’s response to that loss came in extraordinary fashion against Crystal Palace on home turf.
The Eagles were 1-0 up heading into the 87th minute, but the hosts produced an incredible comeback to triumph 3-1.
Jhon Durán slammed in a half-volley in front of the Holte End to level the scores before a surging Villa then took a dramatic lead eight minutes into stoppage time when Douglas Luiz rolled home a penalty following a lengthy VAR check for a foul on Ollie Watkins.
Leon Bailey capped the stunning turnaround when he scored a third in the 101st minute of the game.
Following the drama of another B6 win, the squad headed to Poland for the first game of the Europa Conference League group stage.
A hostile atmosphere awaited at Legia Warszawa, who took the spoils 3-2 despite goals from Durán and Lucas Digne.
Victory at Stamford Bridge provided the perfect tonic to that defeat days later, with Watkins once again terrorising Chelsea.
The striker netted a 73rd-minute winner as Villa kept moving up the Premier League table.
Watkins said post-match: “I’m looking forward to the games coming up now and scoring plenty more goals for the season.”
After an early Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Everton, the England international made good on his promise as September ended with a flourish.
Villa were simply unstoppable against a Brighton & Hove Albion side heavily fancied to compete at the top of the table, destroying them 6-1 at Villa Park.
There were three goals in each half as the home side set about their opponents from the first minute to the last, with Luiz, Jacob Ramsey and a Pervis Estupiñán own goal adding to a Watkins hat-trick.
Three more points moved Emery’s side up to fifth as they looked forward to October.
