Unai Emery rejects Europa League ‘king’ tag as Aston Villa chase first major trophy in 30 years | OneFootball

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has downplayed his formidable reputation in the Europa League as his side prepares for Wednesday’s final, aiming to secure their first major trophy in three decades.

Emery, who has been hailed as a specialist after winning the Europa League four times with Sevilla and Villarreal, insists his past glories will count for nothing as Villa seek to cap a memorable season. The club has impressed in Europe under the Spaniard, reaching the Conference League semi-finals in 2024 before losing to eventual winners PSG in the Champions League quarter-finals last year.

Speaking ahead of the showpiece event, Emery stated: "I am not a king in this competition. I am now with Aston Villa in a new chapter and everything I did is done. It’s there in that moment, but with it I am not winning tomorrow.

"I need to win tomorrow with the players we have now, with Aston Villa now, with the opponent we face tomorrow. So it’s a new way, a new moment and hopefully a new era. I don’t want to speak a lot about the thing we did before. Now, this year, and the matches we played before in the Conference League, they are showing the capacity to play at a high level."

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Unai Emery is aiming to win the Europa League for the fifth time (PA Wire)

Emery has overseen a remarkable transformation at Villa since his arrival in November 2022, steering them from a relegation battle to challenging for European qualification. His side now stands on the brink of their first major trophy since the 1996 League Cup and their first continental crown since the 1982 European Cup triumph.

Acknowledging the pressure, Emery urged his players to embrace the occasion. "This is a process. A process (for) how we could achieve, building the team and our structure. Now it’s a new experience we will have tomorrow. It’s very important how we manage our emotions and we’ve done it for a lot of matches and there are a lot of emotions.

"The pressure is here as well, but we must try to understand the pressure like something positive, not negative. And the pressure is when you are playing for something important. And of course we have experience here."

Villa’s success this season follows a challenging start where they failed to win any of their first six matches. Emery, who admitted he was "really worried" at the time, praised his squad’s resilience.

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Villa are chasing their first major trophy in three decades (PA Wire)

He added: "We started so poorly at the beginning of the season for different reasons. But how the players responded in the difficult moments was really amazing. We were mature in the difficult moments.

“This is the most important characteristic we had during the season – mature and responsible. I was worried at the beginning. Really worried. I was always trying to find solutions in each moment. I needed the players, I needed the work we did and the reaction we did. But we did it together."