Unai Emery paved the way for a busy January for Aston Villa as he urged the club to show ‘ambition’ to help him win the Champions League at Villa Park.
Villa have been the surprise performers of the Premier League this term and if they win at league leaders Arsenal on Tuesday, they will draw level with the Gunners and set a new club record of 12 consecutive wins.
Financial regulations have limited Villa’s room for manoeuvre in the market but Emery still expects them to be active when the window opens next month.
He said: ‘Dreams are free. Everyone has to dream. I have my dreams and I am getting them here. My huge dream here, or as a coach, is to win the Champions League. This has been my dream all my life.
‘Last year we played in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and I was coach of Villarreal when we went to the semi-finals in 2022.
‘But then we are realistic. Right now, the only dream I have is tomorrow’s match. Of course we can analyse how we want to build the club and where we want to get to but now it is all about tomorrow.’
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has outlined his ambition to win the Champions League
Emery is looking to bolster his Villa squad who are in the title race after a stellar run of form
Asked about January, Emery added: ‘We are alert and if we can sign someone to help us and really improve, we will do it. We can sign players, only we can’t spend a lot. But we can do something and of course maybe change (move on) players as well.
‘We want to be ambitious to achieve our objective. Our objective is European football. When I came here three years and two months ago, it was to have a new experience in the Premier League, and to try to build this team to fight for trophies and play in Europe consistently.’
Emery was hired by Arsenal in 2018 but sacked after 18 months. He has performed far better in his second crack at English football, though he will be without key players Boubacar Kamara and Matty Cash due to suspension at Arsenal.
The Spaniard also piled on the pressure ahead of the trip to north London by tipping Arsenal for the title. He said: ‘Arsenal are competing at the highest level of football,’ said Emery. ‘They are favourites for the league, in terms of how they are building the team, improving a lot of things.
‘They signed two players for every position last summer and brought in some very important players. They have some players coming back from injury like Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.
‘You can see they are stronger now. It’s the biggest [test] we’ll face. We must be proud of how close we are to Manchester City and Arsenal, and remain humble, confident and ambitious.’
