Aston Villa boss Unai Emery sends warning to Man Utd amid battle for European qualification

Unai Emery is not ruling out a run at the Champions League for Aston Villa ahead of their clash with Manchester United.

Villa have been on a superb run over recent weeks, and they have enjoyed quite the turnaround under Emery, so much so that they are now very much in European contention. As things stand, the Midlands club are in sixth place, six points off the top four, but having played two games less. As far as a top six finish goes, they are one point ahead of Liverpool having played one game more.

But while Europa League football is a far more realistic expectation at this point, it seems Emery is not quite ruling out pulling off a surprise top four finish ahead of facing the team currently occupying fourth spot this weekend in United.

“The last step is to keep in the European places,” said the Spaniard during his press conference. “We escaped the bottom, we got top 10 and now the European places is the last step but it is more difficult.

“There’s still five matches to play for us, but not for Liverpool, Brighton, Manchester United. We have to face the match on Sunday enjoying this opportunity we have in front of us. Of course, Europe could be Champions League, Europa League or Europa Conference League. Champions League is very, very difficult, maybe impossible. Europa League and Conference League could be, but as well it’s going to be very difficult.”

Emery, of course, has a reputation for succeeding in the Europa League, and his last success in that competition came at United’s expense, defeating the Red Devils in the final with Villarreal almost two years ago. Since then, Emery also reached the Champions League semi-finals with the Yellow Submarine ahead of leaving for Villa during this season.