Unai Emery: Aston Villa qualifying for the Champions League will be difficult
Marco Asensio’s double secured a 2-1 win over Chelsea.
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery says qualifying for the Champions League again will still be “difficult” despite a huge win over Chelsea.
Emery’s side earned a huge three points in the race for the Premier League top four when Marco Asensio’s 89th-minute winner earned a 2-1 victory on Saturday.
Asensio had earlier cancelled out Enzo Fernandez’s opener for Chelsea with both goals set up by Marcus Rashford.
Villa moved up to seventh, just two points behind fourth-placed Manchester City and a point behind Bournemouth in fifth – a position that looks set to earn Champions League qualification this season.
Emery said: “The Premier League is our most important competition. The points we lost along the way, we need to recover. There is still an option and opportunity to compete at the end of the season for a European position.
“Winning or losing today was completely different. Why? Firstly, Chelsea was doing a big gap with us and secondly because our confidence could have gone down. Today, our players and supporters, we are a little bit excited with the possibility of being close to the European positions.
“Hopefully at the end of the season we can be close to it. The Champions League will be difficult, but hopefully the Europa League or the Conference League. We have another two competitions where we can be excited.”
Chelsea are still in the race but their form is a worry as they slipped to a fourth defeat from five in all competitions.
Skipper Reece James played in midfield at Villa Park and is happy to help out wherever needed.
“It was a completely different position to what I’m used to but that doesn’t worry me, it’s somewhere I have experience playing in so it wasn’t anything new to me,” James said on the club’s official website.
“Wherever the manager needs me, I’ll play there and give my all to help the team.”
