At the scene of one of his Europa League final triumphs, the manager is setting targets to achieve success with Villa
F
or Unai Emery, there was a welcome air of familiarity upon arrival at Basel’s St Jakob-Park on Wednesday. It was a return to Switzerland and the scene of his third Europa League triumph with Sevilla in 2016, when his side overcame Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool, 3-1.
“This competition is so, so special for me,” the Aston Villa manager said. “We won here, it was a fantastic day and is a fantastic memory. To remember it is very good.” And then came a big but. Two, in fact. “I want to build a new moment, a new era, a new way with Aston Villa. I can remind myself of the moment I had here.”
Emery is a serial winner when it comes to this competition. He added a fourth with Villarreal in 2021 and Villa are among the favourites to lift the trophy this season. They are the Premier League’s form team after an extraordinary stoppage-time win against Arsenal at the weekend, a result that extended their winning run to seven matches. Victory for Villa on Thursday would take them to 15 points, enough to guarantee automatic qualification for the round of 16 last season, the inaugural league-phase format.
