Aston Villa are the favourites to win the Europa League this season, sitting ahead in the odds of a packed crowd of sides in what looks to be quite an open field without Unai Emery’s side.

Their pricing to win the competition is likely informed by two things - Unai Emery’s record in the competition and the dominance of English sides in the Europa League last season.

Emery has won this competition four times, three times with Sevilla and once with Villarreal. He is well suited to the structure of knockout football, and has a side which has all the ingredients to go deep in the competition following their run to the quarter-finals of the Champions League last campaign.

Villa Park will be a really difficult place for sides to go to, and the second half of their league phase draw is pretty fortuitous, which should give them plenty of momentum heading into the knockout stages.

The main issue for Aston Villa will be balancing their league duties with the European campaign. I get the feeling that Emery wants something to show for his time at Villa, and will prioritise the Europa League over any other competition.

Villa have started slowly in the Premier League, however, as Manchester United and Tottenham demonstrated perfectly last year, you don’t have to be at your best in the Premier League to dominate this competition.

Vincenzo Italiano is one of my favourite coaches in Serie A, and I think he can continue the development of this Bologna side in the Europa League this season.

Bologna secured a top half finish for the third season running last year having spent three seasons outside of the top half of Serie A, and have brought in some notable signings.

Bologna qualified for the Europa League via their success in the Coppa Italia which is a victory that shows that they have recent experience in knockout competition and can manage the pressure that the latter stages of the Europa League brings.

Ciro Immobile joined Bologna this summer as a free agent, he’s still perfectly capable of scoring goals having netted 19 across all competitions for Lazio last season. They’ve also added Jonathan Rowe who starred for England at the U21 Euros over the summer as well as already having options such as Thijs Dallinga, Riccardo Orsolini and Santiago Castro.

I think Bologna are a very complete side and they have a manager who has recent experience not only with winning trophies, but going deep in European competition. Vincenzo Italiano was the Fiorentina manager when they got to the Conference League final a few years ago, only to be beaten by West Ham.

Lille caught my eye when they played Liverpool in the Champions League last season at Anfield and when they welcomed Real Madrid to the Decathlon Arena. This is a squad that wouldn’t look too out of place in the league phase of the Champions League, which, in my opinion, gives them a fantastic chance of going deep in this competition.

Lille’s home form last year will give them a fantastic chance of battling past sides over two legs. They only lost two of their 17 home games in Ligue 1 last season - when they played Liverpool at Anfield last year, Lille were on a run of 15 games unbeaten which is a string of form I'd fancy them to put together again.

Lille scored 31 goals across those games (1.82 per game) which is a scoring power that can really aid them, especially in the league phase where they have some lighter games to contest.

When it comes to Lille’s squad, they’ve brought in Hamza Igamane from Rangers and welcomed Oliver Giroud back to Ligue 1 following his short stint with LAFC. Giroud is a crucial player as he has the necessary experience in these competitions.

As well as these new additions, Lille have a core of young talent who can really shine on this stage. Hakom Haraldsson, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Ethan Mbappe are all players worth keeping an eye on this season. Lille can use their blend of experience and youth to push deep into the Europa League this season.