The former Leicester title winner on embracing his new challenge at the EFL’s bottom club, and what he learned from Ranieri and Tuchel

“I would say that the odds of us turning the season around are lower than Leicester winning the Premier League, so they are in our favour, right?” Christian Fuchs is talking about his new life as manager of Newport County, the English Football League’s bottom club, and the task of staving off a descent into non-league. It is a challenge at the other end of the spectrum, though the fairytale 5000-1 title win in 2016 gave him more than a winner’s medal. “It helped change my mindset a little bit … it showed that the impossible can be possible.”

The logical place to start is: how did Fuchs end up here? “I guess that’s the part that’s not logical, right?” he says, breaking into laughter. It is the 39-year-old’s opening gambit and an indication of his playful and engaging character across a colourful conversation in his office overlooking an artificial pitch at a University of South Wales campus in Treforest, a dozen miles north-west of Cardiff. Discourse runs in different directions, from playing for Thomas Tuchel and Brendan Rodgers to the need to find a local barber.

Roger Federer, an ardent Basel supporter, was up in the stands, in the posh seats to be precise, but even he could surely ignore his allegiances and appreciate the grace with which Youri Tielemans clinched victory for Aston Villa.

Unai Emery turned to Tielemans at half-time and the midfielder delivered within eight minutes, his classy first-time finish regaining the lead, after Evann Guessand’s early strike was cancelled out. This represented a 14th victory in their past 16 matches and it felt a significant one, too, given the pileup at the top of the table amid the scrap to advance automatically to the last 16 in March.

At the scene of one of his Europa League final triumphs, the manager is setting targets to achieve success with Villa

For Unai Emery, there was a welcome air of familiarity upon arrival at Basel’s St Jakob-Park on Wednesday. It was a return to Switzerland and the scene of his third Europa League triumph with Sevilla in 2016, when his side overcame Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool, 3-1.

“This competition is so, so special for me,” the Aston Villa manager said. “We won here, it was a fantastic day and is a fantastic memory. To remember it is very good.” And then came a big but. Two, in fact. “I want to build a new moment, a new era, a new way with Aston Villa. I can remind myself of the moment I had here.”