Torres and Emery have different views on what’s realistic for Aston Villa

Aston Villa’s Pau Torres has differing views to Unai Emery on what is realistic for the club to achieve this season.

After a brilliant fourth placed finish last season which saw Villa qualify for the Champions League, Emery’s side have made an impressive start to the new campaign.

Villa currently sit third just one point behind Liverpool and Manchester City after taking 12 points from their opening five games, and they also kicked off their Champions League adventure with a convincing win against Swiss side Young Boys.

Torres and Emery have different views on Villa’s capability

Confidence in the Villa squad is no doubt high after their start to the season and the players have shown great character in recent victories against Everton and Wolves.

Torres, who has been a regular starter under Emery since he joined from Spanish side Villarreal in a deal worth £31.5m last summer believes Villa can improve on last season’s fourth placed finish.

“As a team, we are prepared to better last season’s finish of fourth,” he  told Betano.

“We have the talent in the squad to do so and improve even further.

“We are working so hard, and we have Champions League football to manage also now, so we need to keep a good balance to do well in each competition.

“We all know what we are capable of and we really feel we can go further this season.”

However, in contrast to Torres, Emery believes a more realistic expectation is a top seven finish and European football again next season.

“We’re not contenders to be in the top four,” Emery said last month.

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“We’re not starting being contenders to be in the top five. There are seven teams who are contenders more than us.”

How Villa do remains to be seen but on the early evidence so far this season it seems the club are more than capable of once again challenging for a Champions League spot.