Aston Villa Champions league “Nightmare?” No This Is The Most…

Youri Tielemans speaks out on Aston Villa’s Champions League chances as ‘frustration’ explained

Youri Tielemans believes Aston Villa are still well within a chance of qualifying for the Champions League despite their lack of consistency in the Premier League so far this season.

Unai Emery’s side are without a win in their last five league games and have only won successive top-flight matches on two occasions since September.

Villa’s draw against league leaders Liverpool on Wednesday reduced their gap to fifth-placed Bournemouth to four points ahead of their 12 remaining fixtures.

Home games against Chelsea, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, Fulham and Tottenham are to come, while Emery’s side also face away matches at Crystal Palace, Brentford, Brighton, Southampton, Man City, Bournemouth and Man United.

Asked after the 1-1 draw with Liverpool if Villa can still finish in the top five, Tielemans said: “Definitely. We always have to believe. We have a lot of games left but we just need to win games now.

“It is just up to us to try and hit the ground running every time and week-in, week-out to try and put a performance in.

“I think tonight we did that and even though the draw against Ipswich was frustrating, they defended really well. When we analysed the game I am still looking for a reason for us not to win that game!

“Their goalkeeper had a worldie as well. We know we can do better and that we can have better results but I think with the performance like we had tonight, we can be really pleased.

“The performance was really good. We had a lot of chances where we could score toward the end. The fact we came into the game was really good, very positive. We have to take the point, move on and keep performing.

“Against Liverpool it is really hard. It is always details and if you make that chance at the end it is three points. But they could have had another one too with Nunez hitting above the goal but I think we just need to carry on with that performance. It was really good. We fought really well, created some chances especially toward the end of the game.”

Sixth-placed Chelsea are level on points with Bournemouth, so Villa can’t overtake Enzo Maresca’s side on Saturday if they beat them at Villa Park, but they would close the gap to a single point.

“Chelsea are right in front of us and we want to compete with those teams,” Tielemans added. “The only thing for us now is to hopefully win the game.

“They are a big opponent for us because we want to be where they are. We want to be close to them, in front of them to get to the Champions League and realise our ambitions coming through. We want to beat them at home, definitely.”