Aston Villa defender believes club can shoot for the stars

Emery’s men also made an impressive start to their Champions League campaign with a 3-0 win at Young Boys.

Villa have a mouth-watering home tie against Bayern Munich to come next week and defender Torres believes with Emery at the helm anything is possible.

“There is no doubt Unai Emery is one of, if not, the best manager in the Premier League,” the defender said to Betano Sports.

“Who else has four Europa League titles? His record in European competition speaks for itself.

“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.”

Villa, who travelled to Wycombe last night in the Carabao Cup, go to Ipswich on Sunday in the league.

Torres continued: “As a team, we are prepared to better last season’s finish of fourth.

“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.”

Villa host Bayern next Wednesday in a repeat of the 1982 European Cup final. Emery’s men also host Bologna, Juventus and Celtic with away trips to Club Brugge, RB Leipzig and Monaco.

“The Champions League is the best competition in the world, as a team you must enjoy this experience with the supporters.

“They have been waiting a long time for this and we need to go as far as we can for them.”

Torres was among the first-team players not involved at Adams Park last night as Emery opted to rest stars including Ollie Watkins and Ezri Konsa.

Villa’s squad for the third round tie included nine academy players, while goalkeeper Joe Gauci made his first-team debut.