Unai Emery met with the media at Bodymoor Heath on Friday afternoon, to look ahead to his side's Premier League meeting with AFC Bournemouth this weekend.
Emery's men travel to the Vitality Stadium on Saturday evening looking for consecutive top flight victories in their penultimate away outing of the season, after last weekend's 1-0 win at home to Fulham.
And the Villa boss spoke with the local and national outlets at the club's training base ahead of the game, discussing progress, the Cherries and his side's bid for Champions League football next season.
Read the key lines from his pre-match press conference below...
On focusing on Champions League qualification...
“Very important. Our objective is Europe, is again to get Europe, to play next year again in Europe.
“We played Conference League last year, we played Champions League this year, and of course Europe has three possibilities – to play Champions League, to play Europa League or to play Conference League.”
On Bournemouth...
“They are performing fantastic. It’s not a surprise, last year, this year, they are competing to get European positions as well.
“The coach, Andoni (Iraola), is really doing a fantastic job. They have very good players, talented players.
“This is Premier League. One team like Bournemouth, they can have amazing players to compete, to fight against the better teams in Premier League, being contenders as well, like they are performing, to be in Europe.
“Massive respect, tough match for us, we have to try to get our best, focusing everything, minute one to minute 90.
“We know about their capacity to defend strongly, and as well to have individual actions offensively with the players they have, the intensity they are playing (with).
“They draw here against us the first match we played here this season, the last minute, because they are very competitive, and they never give up.
“Now, they are our opponent for Europe. Of course, we have some advantage because we are really doing a big effort the last two months in the Premier League to get points.
“But tomorrow is being our highest test in the Premier League in the last matches we play.”
On the run-in...
“Excited. Responsible, to play again in Europe. Of course, to play Champions League is the best objective we can dream again, but the most difficult, and it’s not in our hands.
“We have to win and other teams as well, wait for their results.”
On progress...
“Tomorrow. We are focusing on tomorrow, because tomorrow, we are not able to decide with our hands, (which) competitions we are going to play next year in case we are in Europe, because another team, they have points in front of us.
“Tomorrow the match, after 90 minutes, will give us again, how we are. Last week it was the same against Fulham. We were speaking here in the press conference about the match and after the match we can continue speaking about one thing or another thing.
“Tomorrow is the same. We can continue speaking about the possibility to play in the Champions League or not. If we are winning, if we are drawing, if we are losing, it’s very, very different. Of course, we are competing for Europe, and to play in Europe, is in our hands.
“(Champions League is) not in our hands. We have to win, and then wait.”
On Spurs fixture change...
“Respect our fans. This is the most important. Respect our fans.
“For me, the decision to play on Friday or to play on Sunday, this poor decision is not relevant. We can play Friday, we can play Sunday.
“But our supporters, they prefer to play (Sunday), because the plan changed 10 days or two weeks before the match.
“I can understand they prefer to play on Sunday or Saturday, in the weekend, but of course I am going to focus the match on Friday.
“I accept it, but of course I understand the supporters, and I have to protect my supporters.”
Watch Unai's full pre-match press conference below...
