Unai Emery is determined to ensure Aston Villa’s Champions League success is not a flash in the pan as the Spaniard aims to “break barriers” at a club he has transformed.
Villa are off to their best start in the Premier League since 1998, with 17 points from their opening eight games and have won their first two fixtures in the Champions League, including a famous victory over Bayern Munich.
Emery is a specialist in European competition, having won the Europa League four times and led Villarreal to the Champions League semi-finals two years ago.
Prior to this season, Villa’s last experience at the highest level of European football was back in 1983, while they have not won a trophy since 1996.
But Emery wants to maintain the standards he has set since taking charge two years ago.
“I don’t want to waste my time here, that is my message,” he said ahead of Bologna’s visit to Villa Park in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“My objective here is to keep the same level we have now, Champions League and add more to be contenders for titles.
“We want to achieve the objectives and one of them is to play in the Champions League. It is not about playing there only because of some circumstances — I want to us to stay there for a long time.
“It is difficult. Maybe sometimes you can have some problems or struggle in our way, but you have to be resilient. We want to be strong in the idea in our mind and create a strong mentality to always break barriers.”
Victory over the Italians would likely give Villa enough points to progress to at least the play-off round of the Champions League with five games to spare.
Emery’s men are also above the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United in the Premier League table, all of whom they beat to a top-four finish last season.
“We are fourth in the Premier League, we are with two wins in the Champions League,” added Emery.
“Tomorrow hopefully we will play showing we believe we can compete. I don’t know how far we are going to get but in this moment we are here, in a good position in the Premier League and Champions League.”
Defender Matty Cash is set for his Champions League bow after missing the wins over Young Boys and Bayern due to injury.
“In the last four years since I joined, the club has just gone through the roof, the quality in every single department has gone up and the club has not got a ceiling,” said Cash.
“I think it can go all the way to the top. You can see now playing Champions League football has been a building block to get here and the manager has been a big part of that to get us here.”