Aston Villa's Matty Cash happy to avoid talk and focus on success in Europe

Villa are enjoying their best season for decades and tonight will look to take another step towards just their second ever European final.

Emery’s men are also leading the race for Premier League’s final Champions League place with three matches remaining and Cash agrees with the view, shared by many supporters, their achievements have been overlooked outside the Midlands. But the right-back, speaking ahead of tonight’s Europa Conference League semi-final first leg against Olympiacos, dismissed the suggestion it was a source of added motivation.

“I do think that a lot of people talk about the top clubs rather than Villa being fourth,” said Cash. “But we don’t focus on that.

There is talk outside and as players you can’t really get distracted by that.

“But I do agree, the top six get spoken about more than we do and the credit we deserve.

“If we can go as the underdogs and keep winning, that is the best thing. Not being spoken about and keep performing, it couldn’t be better.”

Yesterday marked Emery’s 18-month anniversary as Villa head coach, having taken charge when they sat above the relegation zone on goal difference.

Cash, whose late goal in last month’s quarter-final in Lille kept Villa in the tie when they were minutes from exiting the competition, continued: “We’ve made a statement over the last year and half.

“Ever since the manager came in, from the get-go we started really strongly with him and we did really well to finish seventh and get into the Conference League. Now we’re in with a shout of qualifying for the Champions League. If you win a European competition and finish in the top four it’s a special season.

“That is something as a group we want to do. Obviously there’s still work to do. We want to get over the line.”

He went on: “We deserve to be where we are. You’re not there by luck, you’re there because you deserve to be and the manager has been a key part.

“He’s so demanding and we haven’t got a massive squad. We’ve all had our fair share of games. We believe that we can do it.”