Unai

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.”

Villa’s decision to go for Emery four years ago was a sign of their ambition to make a mark on the European stage.

While they are still well placed in fourth position in the English top flight, as they aim to secure a Champions League berth next term, success in the Europa League would also deliver the same outcome.

However, on Thursday it was just about recapturing their rhythm and some confidence after a winless run of four games domestically that included defeats to Newcastle, Chelsea and bottom club Wolves.

Speaking to TNT Sports, returning captain John McGinn suggested that the result had provided Villa with a “building block” and the opportunity to “reset” after a difficult few weeks.

“We needed a reset. The past month has not been great,” he said.

“We can’t dwell on it. We can learn from it but what we need to do is build and this is a building block. We know we can do a lot better but it is a good result.

“We showed signs of getting back to our best but there’s still a long way to go. Sunday is a massive game in the league as well [at third-placed Manchester United] so it is a tough run of fixtures, but that was a good start.

Meanwhile, Emery said he used the struggles of their Premier League rivals in the Champions League as a motivational tool before kick-off.

He said: “We respect this competition because we know the difficulties of each match away from home in Europe.

“We know how it is for the English teams, like this week in the Champions League, how they were struggling.”