Emery counting on Conference League experience as schedule bites at Villa

Aston Villa may be winless in six games ahead of their Champions League meeting with Juventus, but Unai Emery refuses to blame their drop-off on a congested fixture list.

Villa’s winless streak has seen them crash out of the EFL Cup and drop to eighth in the Premier League table, with only a late Ross Barkley header salvaging a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Emery’s men also saw their perfect Champions League start halted by a shock 1-0 defeat to Club Brugge on matchday four, leaving them eighth in the 36-team table.

Villa have nine more matches to play before the turn of the year, with the first of those at home to a Juve side sat one point behind them in the standings.

Emery, however, says they cannot blame a fixture pile-up for their loss of form, particularly after they juggled domestic and Europa Conference League commitments last season.

“Last year we had experience with the Conference League, we juggled a lot. We want to play a lot of matches and hopefully, we will play until the last month of the season,” Emery said.

“The Champions League is the best competition in the world. We are managing each match and more or less being consistent in the preparation and being consistent in the idea of building a team.

“Tomorrow is a very important three points but even if we don’t win, taking one point is good because in the table we are in the top eight positions.

“We want to be in the next round and tomorrow if we win, maybe we can be a contender to get it.”

Villa have beaten Bayern Munich and Bologna in their first two Champions League home games, and they could now become just the third English club to win their first three at home in the competition, after Tottenham in 2010 and Leicester City in 2016.

They kept clean sheets in both of those matches, with AC Milan in 1992-93 the only team to ever win their first three home games in the Champions League without conceding.

Juve have also been tough to break down under Thiago Motta, though, boasting Serie A’s best defensive record, and Emery knows Villa will have to make the most of their chances.

“He was very competitive as a player, he was very intelligent, he was a top player. Physically he was strong, mentally he was strong and now as a coach he has started being successful,” Emery, who coached Motta when he was a midfielder at Paris Saint-Germain, added.

“I appreciate him as a person, I appreciated him as a player and now I appreciate him as a manager.

“They are very strong defensively, not only with the ball but without the ball… They are building a team, trying to keep consistency and dominating matches with the ball but defensively trying to be strong positionally.”

Villa are also dealing with injury concerns but Emery said Ezri Konsa and Boubacar Kamara will be available as Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey miss out.

Onana sat out the weekend’s draw with Palace due to injury, while Ramsey is still nursing a knock sustained in a 2-0 defeat by Liverpool before the international break.