Unai Emery believes Aston Villa face tough challenge against Tottenham Hotspur

LONDON – In a press conference ahead of Aston Villa's upcoming match against Tottenham Hotspur on Nov 3, Unai Emery acknowledged that Spurs are currently considered the favorites to finish above his team in the English Premier League standings. Emery attributed this to Tottenham's larger budget, but remains confident in his top-four hopefuls' ability to compete at a high level.

Villa visit north London five points clear of Ange Postecoglou’s men and have finished above Spurs in the past two seasons. But Emery insisted that Tottenham’s greater resources made them the likely winners for this match and to also finish higher in the league.

“They are the favourites in front of us for the season and favourites for the match on Sunday,” he said on Nov 1.

“But we are competing and we are being confident in how we are doing our way.

“We are trying to be contenders with those teams like Tottenham, or Chelsea or Newcastle, to compete with them in the top seven, top six, it is a really great match.”

Emery, whose team have made an electrifying start to their Champions League campaign, added: “I have to tell everybody, there are another seven teams in front of us in the beginning, with the budget.

“But we are competing and in the last two years we are progressively getting better and keeping the same level we are trying to set as a target.”

Tottenham’s 2-1 League Cup victory over Manchester City in midweek came after a below-par display in a 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace last weekend, and made it eight wins in their past 10 matches in all competitions.

But only three of those victories have been in the Premier League and Postecoglou knows that his side must find greater consistency.

He said: “In the league we have had some disappointing results but really only one disappointing performance and that was the Palace game. It wasn’t a great performance and we got what we deserved.

“We continue to evolve, learn from that and when we have had disappointments, we bounce back straight away, which I think is important.

“It is part of the evolution of the team. It is not going to be a smooth ride but within that we don’t want there to be too many times when we are not playing the football we want to. I have said it to the players, ‘If you want to grow a beautiful garden you have to handle some fertiliser’. That is the only way it will happen.”

The Tottenham boss was also asked about his side again being labelled “Spursy” following their loss at lowly Palace, who coincidentally beat Villa 2-1 in the League Cup in midweek.

“It is still something people will throw at us. You have to accept that until you prove otherwise,” the Australian said.

“The other night was a strong performance against a formidable side (City). It was an unbelievable physical effort but that’s what I think you have to do against a team like City. (We) just keep focusing on what is important to us.”

Spurs captain Son Heung-min missed the win against City with an injury but returned to training on Nov 1. The South Korean forward has missed three of Tottenham’s past four Premier League matches but could be fit to face Villa.

“Son has trained today. If he gets through training tomorrow, he should be OK,” added Postecoglou.

Spurs will be without defender Micky van de Ven, who suffered a hamstring injury against City, but Postecoglou said he should return after this month’s international break.

“He is disappointed obviously and was looking forward to the game. He will work hard and the international break is an extra two weeks so hopefully he does not miss much,” he said.

Villa, meanwhile, have only one player ruled out in Ross Barkley. AFP,