Unai Emery reveals daily message which keeps him 'humble' in quest for Aston Villa success

“I have one message in my mind every day when I wake up and it is football is very, very difficult,” Emery explained during Thursday’s pre-match press conference.

As can sometimes be the case with Villa's boss, the answer did not bear too much relation to the question asked but the words provided an insight into the mindset of a man who is never satisfied.

“To succeed through football is very difficult,” continued Emery. “Because there are a lot of competitive managers, players, coaches, teams. 

“They are always improving and if you are stopping, you are thinking everything you know, everything you are the best, it's a problem. 

“And myself I am humble. Humble so deep. I am feeling humble to understand I need to improve every day. I need to be better every day.”

This is the attitude which has driven Villa on this season, from the lows of an eight-match winless run, chastening defeats to Crystal Palace and an at one-time chronic injury troubles through to a position where, with two matches to play, the Champions League beckons once more.

Victory over Tottenham in what is Emery’s 100th Premier League match in charge would send Villa into the top-five and guarantee, at the very least, their fight to finish in those positions goes to the final day of the season. 

Asked for favourite memories of his first 99 games at the helm, Emery referenced victory over Manchester United in his first and big home wins over Brighton, along with last season’s 2-0 win at Arsenal which went some way to securing a top-four place.

The manager was also keen to stress, however, the importance of defeats in shaping the journey. Most crucially, Emery is focused on the moments still to come.

"I am very motivated and excited to add more moments, good moments like hopefully tomorrow against Tottenham at home,” he said.

"For the way we are doing together, for the Vila fans, for the workers, for the players, for the coaches, for you, for the journalists as well. Enjoy the moment we are having.”

Villa are huge favourites thanks to the respective form of the two teams and Tottenham’s involvement in next week’s Europa League final.

While the hosts are targeting a ninth win in 11 league matches, the visitors have won just one of their last 10 but Emery rejected the notion of naming a more attacking line-up in order to try and blow away their opponents.

“To win each match is the objective,” he said. “You have to defend, to defend, to defend, to defend, to defend. And you have to attack, to attack, to attack, to attack. Everything.

“Of course, the demand of the opponent is very important. And sometimes you have to defend more, sometimes you have to attack more, it depends. 

“But I think most important is how we are competing and how we will compete tomorrow. To compete is everything. Individually and collectively we have to be focused 90 minutes. 

“We learned in our process to be very demanding ourselves. We weren't performing well during the season offensively and we needed to improve it. And we weren't performing consistently defensively and we were trying to correct it.

“And now we have to try to get our best attacking and defending. I think we have to do everything.”