For Aston Villa, the Europa League must only be the beginning, Unai Emery insisted after winning the trophy for a fifth time. Beating Freiburg 3-0 on Wednesday evening brought Villa’s first major piece silverware since the League Cup in 1996, but Emery is determined this should not be the summit of their achievements. He again rejected the tag of “king of the Europa League”, preferring to focus on “now” and, by implication, the future.
“Next year we will play in Champions League and this is the challenge,” the Aston Villa manager said. “The best teams in the world are there and it will challenge us a lot. The Premier League is the most difficult league in the world. To be fighting top seven, top five, top four is something very difficult. Hopefully we can be close with teams like City and Arsenal.
“It’s a huge challenge we have in Premier League. Why? In the beginning we are not contenders for top seven. There are top seven teams. Top six, and Newcastle is the seventh. And we are trying to get there. To try to be consistent there. We are achieving it.”
Winning the Europa League is part of the process. “Play for Europe, play for trophies,” Emery said, explaining the stages of fulfilling the dream he outlined in his introductory press conference as Villa manager. “This is the first one and we are achieving and the experiences we are having is every important in how we can get better.Trophies make sense of what we are doing. We are not going to stop.”
A key part of that process has been the set-piece coach, Austin MacPhee, as exemplified by the move that led to Youri Tielemans finding space to put Villa ahead with a ferocious volley. John McGinn, the Villa captain, said: “I’m biased, but we have a great set piece coach in Austin MacPhee. We tried to deceive a bit with the set piece. We did it against Liverpool at the weekend. Youri has great quality to find the goal. It’d have been over the bar if it were me!”
Quick GuideRace for Europe: what does Villa's victory mean?
Show
Aston Villa's victory in the Europa League final means that six Premier League teams could play in next season's Champions League – but only if Villa finish fifth in the table. Villa would qualify as Europa League winners, with the extra league phase place awarded to the team in sixth (currently Bournemouth).
Liverpool have all but secured fifth place, but could climb to fourth with a win over Brentford on the final day, if Villa are beaten at Manchester City (who, like Arsenal and Manchester United, have secured a top-four finish). That would open up a sixth Champions League spot for Bournemouth or Brighton.
If Villa stay above fifth, the team who finishes sixth will go into the Europa League. The side in seventh place will do so either way, with eighth spot earning a Conference League berth, after City won the FA and League Cups and finished in the top four.
Chelsea are currently in eighth place but travel to Sunderland – one point back in 10th place – on the final day in what looks likely to be a European eliminator. Crystal Palace can also claim a Europa League spot if they win the Conference League final.
Key final-day fixtures: Brighton v Man Utd, Liverpool v Brentford, Man City v Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth, Sunderland v Chelsea.
Emery called MacPhee “a really fantastic creator. We must be so, so demanding in our details. Austin is fantastic. Everything we are working on makes sense. The hours in each training session each day to try to get as best as possible our challenges in set pieces. When we are scoring like that of course we are proud of what we’re doing.”
The Villa keeper, Emiliano Martínez, required treatment for a hand injury before the game, and revealed after the match that he played with a fracture. “Today I broke my finger during the warm-up and for me, every bad thing brings something good. I’ve done this my whole life and I’ll keep doing it,” the Argentinian said.
“Should I be worried? Well, I’ve never had a broken finger before,. Every time I caught the ball, it went the other way. But these are things you have to go through, and I’m proud to defend Aston Villa.”