Emery warns surging Villa to ignore title talk
Despite their “amazing” climb to third place, Unai Emery maintains that Aston Villa cannot afford to begin daydreaming about a Premier League title campaign.
The team led by Emery has closed the gap on leaders Liverpool to two points after winning their past two league games against Manchester City and Arsenal.
On Thursday, Villa also made it to the Europa Conference League round of 16 after winning Group E.
Although supporters are starting to expect Villa to challenge for their first English championship since 1981, Emery asked his team to remain grounded.
“I will speak about it (the title race) when we are facing matchday 30, 32 and in case we will be there maybe I can set this objective in my mind, with the players and with the club,” Emery told reporters ahead of Sunday’s trip to Brentford.
“But now, we are third and it’s amazing. We are there because we are deserving it. It’s been very difficult and the next challenge is on Sunday against Brentford.
“Against teams like Brentford, more or less, we are having more problems to get a good performance and to face them imposing our game plan.
“Why? Because the Premier League is very difficult. Wolverhampton is very difficult. Nottingham (Forest) is very difficult. Bournemouth is very difficult. Sunday is very difficult.”
Despite Brentford’s four straight losses in the league, Emery is not taking anything for granted against a team that trailed Villa by only two points in the previous campaign.
“They challenged us to play in the Conference League because they were close to us the previous year. They are struggling a little bit now that we got it done, but they are still competitive despite the injuries to key players, Emery added.
“We are going to face them on Sunday trying to be more competitive than them, better than we did in Bournemouth, trying to be successful.”
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