Pau Torres in disagreement with Unai Emery over Aston Villa 'capability'

Torres is delighted with the start to the 2024/25 campaign and believes Villa can improve on last term’s fourth-placed Premier League finish, but Emery is keeping his forecast grounded - probably to reduce the pressure on his players.

Confidence within the squad is high as the Villans, who saw off Young Boys away from home in the Champions League opener last week, have won four of their opening five Premier League fixtures. The only defeat so far this season came against title challengers Arsenal - and even that game could’ve gone either way.

There was great character shown last time out as Villa came from behind to beat local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1 at Villa Park. Torres, who has been a regular starter since signing for £31.5 million from Villarreal last summer, wants to utilise the momentum.

"As a team, we are prepared to better last season’s finish of fourth,” Torres 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.”

Emery, meanwhile, thinks the more realistic expectation is to challenge for the top seven, with so many different teams able to display greater spending power throughout recent transfer windows.

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

Despite disagreeing with Emery over the realistic target for the campaign, Torres is still in absolute awe of his head coach, who he believes is one of the greatest in England.

“There is no doubt Unai Emery is one of, if not, the best manager in the Premier League. Who else has four Europa League titles? His record in European competition speaks for itself,” Torres added.

"I think this shows the true quality of him as a manager. His preparation ahead of the game is so good to inform us exactly what to do and what the opponent will do. We will always be confident of beating any team with him in the dugout.”