Unai Emery is relishing the prospect of playing Manchester United this weekend as Aston Villa close in on the European places. Emery was appointed as Steven Gerrard's successor in October and the Spaniard comfortably won his first game in charge against United at Villa Park, overseeing a 3-1 victory thanks to goals from Leon Bailey, Lucas Digne and Jacob Ramsey.
Since that game, Villa have made excellent progress in the Premier League under Emery and they now sit fifth in the table.
United welcome Villa to Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon in what promises to be a tricky fixture for Erik ten Hag's side and Emery, speaking on Wednesday night, admitted he was 'very, very excited' to take on the Reds again.
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"I have to be ambitious and realistic and to play under pressure because I like pressure," Emery said when asked about European qualification. "If we’re playing under pressure it means we have something to do. We are now candidates.
"We are fifth but Tottenham play and Liverpool have played one match less than us; Brighton three matches less than us. We are going to play against them and, OK, I think our matches could be key matches to really keep being candidates to get European position.
"Today I am now going to enjoy the match on Sunday. I start now. I am going to prepare for that match today against Manchester United. It’s to play now and for us to be candidates in the European position, phew, I’m very, very excited.
"The supporters are going to be with us travelling away. I am going to enjoy, starting from today. Yes [fond memories of defeating United at Villa Park] but this will be very different. We won here but we lost after in the Carabao Cup.
"United have good players and coach. I think if we are now competing like we are doing and being a candidate in the European position, it’s a good moment for us."
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