Unai Emery revealed his overall objective at Aston Villa is to deliver silverware, most notably the Premier League title, as he celebrated the three-year anniversary of his appointment at the club.
Villa’s league fixture against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday will fall exactly three years from the day when Emery took over at Villa Park.
Since his arrival in Birmingham, Emery has won 58 of his 110 games in charge of the club (52.73%), with Villa scoring 183 goals in that time and averaging 1.8 points per game in the competition.
Villa reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season, losing to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain, and progressed to the last four of the Conference League in the previous campaign.
Emery expressed his joy at how both he and the club have progressed over the past three seasons, but believes there is still a lot to achieve.
“Of course, very proud of how the club, supporters, the players, get the commitment together with our idea, our demands, as a manager and coaches following, being very, very demanding and consistent, and the level of demands we did overall,” he told the club website.
“Even myself, because I am a better coach than three years ago, and thankful for the players to help me to get better as a coach and thankful for the club helping me and making me better with the opportunity I have to manage here.
“Of course, the owners – they are very important, how they are supporting me, how they are as well supporting the club.
“Still work to do, still objectives to set and work hard to achieve those objectives – collectively and myself as well, individually.
“One of them is some titles, but of course, the title only is winning one, Premier League, the cups in England, and Europe, is the target we can set through to achieve some titles, and we are in this way.”
Emery will be hoping to leave Anfield with at least a point against a struggling Liverpool side.
The Reds continued their poor form during the week with a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the EFL Cup.
Arne Slot believes his squad depth is not as strong as many think it is, with his side struggling with the current schedule.
“Against Brentford, it was two days after we played Eintracht Frankfurt away, and I saw a team that is struggling to play three games in seven days, but it is not an excuse,” said Slot.
“I’ve seen the struggles some players have had in pre-season. It’s a new challenge to play in the Premier League and Champions League, three games in seven days.
“Our squad is probably not as big as people think it is. There has not been a change in the way we look at this.”