Unai Emery and Aston Villa believing Champions League dream

Local TV Sport

An incredible result for Unai Emery to go to his former Premier League side and record a win that possible scuppers Arsenal’s title charge this season.  The ball is almost back in the Villian’s court as the race for a return to the champions league, continues. Boss Emery has now openly admitted the UCL dream, is on.

Transcript

00:00 Charlie, looking at Aston Villa and Unai Emery finally admitting that the Champions League

00:06 race is on. I mean, a few results have gone their way recently. They had that massive

00:10 loss at home to Spurs, which you may have thought Spurs would have been creeping in,

00:14 but they've been brilliant ever since. You know, this is finally a big step in the season

00:21 and the manager has come out and said this.

00:24 He's been denying it all year, Unai Emery. We've been trying so hard in the press conferences

00:28 just to get him to say they're Champions League contenders. But he wouldn't even admit they

00:31 were European contenders, which was nuts to us. And even at Christmas time when they were

00:37 kind of in the fight with Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool at the top, at that point he

00:41 wasn't even saying they were European contenders. And he'd list the likes of Chelsea as higher

00:47 contenders, even though they're about 15, 20 points adrift. So for him to actually say

00:51 that they're Champions League contenders, let alone European, is a big step for him.

00:56 He always said it would be kind of game week 32, 33 that he might start talking about it.

01:01 And he definitely lived up to his word. But who can blame him going away to his old team

01:06 Arsenal, a 2-0 win, whilst they're at the Emirates for that. It was just unbelievable

01:10 the way they played in that second half.

01:11 The first half they rode their luck a little bit. Emi Martinez made some big saves. But

01:16 in that second period Villa were just the better team. And I don't think Arsenal can

01:19 really deny that. Martin Odegaard got quite tired. He went off with a knock. Villa took

01:24 advantage and two great goals. Leon Bailey's, I know it was a tap in, but the work beforehand

01:28 was good. And then Ollie Watkins' finish was just incredible. So very well-deserved win

01:32 and now three points ahead of Tottenham in the top four race. It's a huge result for

01:37 them and I think they could well get Champions League.

01:39 Obviously, the likelihood becomes a lot bigger now. What sort of impact does it have on the

01:46 club getting this Champions League? Obviously, it's possible that fifth place could get it

01:50 as well. Do you feel like it's almost there now and they are one of the favourites to

01:56 get the Champions League next season?

01:58 You'd hope so. Having that advantage over Tottenham, having the goal difference advantage,

02:03 just about, it's very close that one. That could really go either way. They're in the

02:07 driving seat. If they just win all of their remaining games, I know it's very much a cliché

02:11 thing, then they're getting it. They have got some tough matches to go, but Tottenham

02:16 have got worse fixtures. Villa's a kind of mid-table fixtures and Chelsea whacked into

02:21 there as well, and Liverpool actually. But Tottenham's are three of the top six they've

02:28 got to play still. So I think that gives Villa the advantage of it. And as well, Tottenham

02:32 have to really crunch their fixtures in the last few games of the season, which is going

02:35 to be tough for them.

02:36 In terms of fifth place, Man City and Arsenal being knocked out of the Champions League

02:41 means that the co-efficiency probably isn't going to be good enough, especially if Bayern

02:45 Munich and Dortmund are through and Leverkusen are likely to beat West Ham United. So Villa

02:49 might have to sail their own ship here in Europe if they can get to the Conference League

02:53 final and win that. But at the moment, it looks like you might have to finish fourth

02:56 to get to the Champions League.

02:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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