Aston Villa is confronted with Manchester United on the last day of the Premier League season, knowing that they need a victory to have another place in the Champions League again
Aston Villa -Baas Unai Emery insisted that the opponents of Sunday Manchester United still had an aura of “greatness” despite their continuous struggles.
Villa offers to seal a Champions League place on the last day of the Premier League and visits four days after the Europa League defeat of United against Tottenham has worsened one of their worst seasons.
Emery's side is on points with Newcastle and Chelsea and a better off than Nottingham Forest, because the race goes to the wire for a top five finish.
Despite United's misery, Emery said: “Always, (I expect) the best of them. The best. The greatness of Manchester United is still there. The great coach (Ruben Amorim) they have is still there.
“He did fantastic work in Sporting Lisbon, fantastic and not for a year, not two years, not three years – consistently. When he arrived here, it was a difficult moment.
“Only one of them in the final (Europa League) could achieve their objective and they (united) lost. But their greatness is still there. The coach is a great coach and the players are very good players.
“We played here for three years with Aston Villa and I did not defeat them here (Old Trafford). My respect is a huge respect for Manchester United, their players and for the coach.”
Victory for Villa, in combination with fallen points for Newcastle (at home against Everton) and Chelsea (in Forest), would guarantee the Side Champions League football from Emery for a second success.
The former head coach of Sevilla, Paris St Germain and Arsenal added: “We have the Europa Conference League, Europa League and Champions League. We will end in Europe and that is the first goal we have set at the start of the season.
“We are ambitious and our ambition is how we demand in the second half of the season and arrive at the most important moment with the opportunity to be there.
“It's not in our hands, but we really made a big effort to be here now, and focused on the competition on Sunday with opportunities to be there.
“We are very excited and 100 percent motivated. We work and are disciplined about everything we should try to do on Sunday. We respect the opponent.”