Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa has delivered a rallying cry as we head into the concluding run-in of the Premier League season.
Villa are well placed with nine games remaining, as we sit in fourth spot with a three-point cushion over Tottenham and a nine-point lead over Man Utd, albeit both have a game in hand.
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With fifth place potentially enough to secure Champions League qualification for next season, it’s hoped that we can secure the wins needed as soon as possible to achieve that objective, and simultaneously continue to advance in the Europa Conference League.
As he has always stressed though, Unai Emery will merely be focusing on our next game and that’s a meeting with Wolves on Saturday evening, but Konsa has made it clear what our target is in these next nine league outings to give an idea of the mood within the squad, and it’s to secure that Champions League berth.
“We’ve got nine games left in the Premier League, nine finals for us,” he told VillaTV.
“We know what we’ve got to do. As players, we want to play Champions League football and I think the boss is the same.
“We’ve got to take each game as it comes and try to get as many wins as we can.”
Our trajectory and progress since Emery was appointed has been thoroughly enjoyable and impressive, and to compare where we were prior to his arrival to now, it re-emphasises the impact that the Spaniard has made at the club in a short time.
Particularly when you consider the absentees that we’ve had to make do without this season, not having either Tyrone Mings or Emiliano Buendia at all, while the likes of Pau Torres, Konsa, Boubacar Kamara and Jacob Ramsey have all had significant spells on the sidelines, it makes our progress all the more impressive.
Now though, comes the most important and difficult test. As Konsa notes, it’s very much a case of nine finals for us in the coming weeks, and coming out of the international break having had a chance to regroup and recharge, we’re hopefully well set to put together a critical run of good form to get over the line.
A crucial element will be our ability to balance that with our European commitments, but if we want to be a club competing at the top level and for major honours, that is something that this squad, with the help of reinforcements along the way, will have to grow accustomed to on a consistent basis.