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After Aston Villa shocked the world last week by doing the unthinkable as an English team by winning away in Europe, on Thursday they have the chance of following that up by securing a place in the last eight of the Europa League. The road to Istanbul is paved with claret because they have Unai Emery at the helm, a man who knows a thing or two about winning a second tier competition. Mr Big Vase, or Señor Florero Grande, as he’s known in Spain, has won the competition four times, three with Sevilla and once with Villarreal. He failed to do so with Arsenal for a simple reason: their name does not include V-I-L-L-A, which was surely his downfall and why they lost to Chelsea in the 2019 final.
There is almost no way Emery and his Villans are not on an open top bus come the end of May. Lille’s players will leave their cattle behind with some degree of hope but with the irritating feeling that the lack of a V and A within their name will cost them dearly. It is absolutely impossible for the French side to meddle with destiny, Señor Florero Grande is still at the top of his game, not worrying about Big Cup or any of that nonsense, the Premier League is a mere sideshow for what he wants to achieve in life and that is to have a mantelpiece stocked with floral bouquets in ceramics in his Spanish bungalow.
