Emery urges Villa to strive for excellence after Forest draw

Unai Emery says Aston Villa must strive for excellence as they battle for Champions League qualification and Europa League glory.

Villa have one foot in the last four of the Europa League after last Thursday’s 3-1 away win over Bologna in the first leg of their quarter-final.

Emery’s side are also in control of their top-five destiny in the Premier League after Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest moved them three points clear of fifth-placed Liverpool.

“We are playing for excellence,” Emery said after Neco Williams’ first-half leveller cancelled out Murillo’s own-goal opener at the City Ground.

“We were excellent in December. We were two or three points behind Arsenal and behind Manchester City. And how we were one month ago was not excellent, like in December, but we were very good.

“And how we are now is the same in our objective, the Europa League quarter-final and in the Premier League’s top five positions. Of course, today the match is something similar. We played a very good match, but the next step forward is to play excellent to win.

“We tried it, and I’m so happy that we were keeping a strong game plan and the players were following it. We tried to win, we played to win, we competed to win.”

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Villa had chances to win it against relegation-battling Forest as Morgan Rogers – who created Murillo’s own goal with a low cross – and Ollie Watkins passed up glorious second-half chances.

But Emery may be concerned that Villa have dropped five points from winning positions in the Premier League since the start of March (three v Chelsea, two v Forest), more than they did between August and February of this season (four).

The Spanish boss saw the result as a positive but urged Villa to find their killer instinct in searching for all three points.

“Through our game plan, we planned, and we have got a very good match, a very good point, but still the next step forward to achieve is excellence,” he added.

“We need three points, like the match we played today or in the next matches, to be a contender to be in the top five.

“Our next match on Sunday, Sunderland, is the next challenge in the Premier League. And of course, the Europa League is something we must feel comfortable, happy, proud of everything we are doing.”