glory

Emery became the quickest Villa manager to 100 wins with victory in France last week.

Villa Park marked the achievement with fans holding up ‘Emery 100’ cards as the teams walked out.

He knows how to get the job done and, with Villa searching for their first trophy in three decades, the end of the drought is in sight.

Villa did what was necessary against Lille, even if the performance still lacked the style, tempo and class they have produced this season.

Those levels remain from their stumble in the Premier League, with just two wins from 10 games, which has added jeopardy, something which did not look likely at the start of the year.

Overhauled by Manchester United, Villa – who host West Ham on Sunday – are lucky to still be in the top five, mainly due to Liverpool and Chelsea’s failings.

But Emery, rightly, continues to ask to be judged after 38 games and where they will be at the end of the season.

Last month he was being asked about being in the title race and on Wednesday he pointed out being in Europe and in the top four was just a dream for the club when he took over three and a half years ago.

In his first press conference the former Arsenal and Paris St-Germain boss stated he came to Birmingham to win trophies and Villa have edged a little closer to that goal.

Emery has now reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League for the eighth time, no other manager has done so more than five times, while Villa have made the quarter-finals of a major European competition in three straight seasons.

“Villa [were] very professional, not outstanding, just doing enough to get to the next round,” Dublin said.

“That’s what they need, but they will have to up their performances if they want to get to the latter stages of the competition.

“I think there is more to come from them. If they do that, they can really surprise a few people.”

The Conference League, Europe’s third-tier competition, is only in its fifth season, with two English sides – West Ham in 2023 and Chelsea in 2025 – among its first four winners.

From the start of this season’s edition Palace have been the bookmakers’ favourites, even though they only finished 10th in the league phase and had to go through two matches against Bosnian champions Zrinjski to get into the last 16.

But there are not many clubs in the competition Palace will fear.

They will find out on Friday whether they play German side Mainz, a team 13th in the Bundesliga, or Cypriot side Larnaca, who only scored seven goals in six league phase matches, though they did beat Palace 1-0 in October.

“We’re hungry for more [silverware] but you don’t talk about winning it three months out,” added goalkeeper Henderson, who became Palace captain after Guehi left the club.

“It’s knockout football and we go into it with confidence. You see the supporters get into the stadium early and Selhurst was rocking tonight and we can make it a fortress.”

Former Palace defender James Tomkins, speaking on TNT Sports, said: “They go through to the next stage, into the last 16 of this competition and they are favourites to go on and win it from here.

“They’ve got to concentrate on the Conference League. The opportunity they’ve got is incredible. To add a third trophy in two seasons would be remarkable and beyond the wildest dreams of the fans.

“They needed a second goal to get over the line and it’s a great night for the club. The atmosphere is amazing and you can see all the fans are behind the team and the manager and it means a lot.”