Unai Emery dampens Aston Villas Premier League title hopes

Unai Emery maintains that Aston Villa can truly be seen as Premier League title challengers only if they remain in the race heading into the last three matches.

Aston Villa narrowed the gap to the top of the table to four points after defeating Newcastle 2 0 away, shortly before Arsenal suffered an unexpected 3 2 loss at home to a revitalised Manchester United.

Emery team sitting in third place are now tied on points with Manchester City in second as the battle for the championship intensifies.

Even after securing Villas first win at St James Park since 2005, the typically reserved Emery avoided any talk of chasing the clubs inaugural title triumph since 1981.

Last week we were beaten by Everton and nobody mentioned us as title hopefuls, yet now they do he remarked.

We face Brentford at home next. Lets stay composed. Maintaining equilibrium is my sole focus right now.

The approach I follow is to train daily and if we deliver steady performances, perhaps we improve and by matchday 35 things might look different.

Emery has consistently held the view that Villa are outsiders in the title contest due to the vast resources of rivals like Arsenal Manchester City Liverpool and Chelsea.

He reiterated this stance when questioned about Villas chances of claiming the top spot.

Naturally we are up against Arsenal Manchester City Chelsea Liverpool Newcastle Tottenham all with immense strength he noted.

Still we are in the mix earning points along the way.

Villa who have triumphed in six and tied in three of their 12 league away fixtures took the lead via Emiliano Buendias precise curving shot that left keeper Nick Pope helpless.

Newcastle might have equalised but Emiliano Martinez made a brilliant stop on Lewis Mileys header right before the interval.

Villa added a late second goal courtesy of Ollie Watkins though Emery received bad news as Scottish midfielder John McGinn faces up to two months sidelined with a knee problem.

We are delighted and immensely proud of our effort especially after the setback against Everton which we bounced back from so well Emery added.