Matty Cash: Aston Villa and Unai Emery's achievements worthy of more credit

Matty Cash reckons it’s time Villa started getting the credit they deserve after stamping their ticket back to the Champions League.

Friday’s 4-2 win over Liverpool secured a top-five Premier League position with a match to spare, ensuring Emery’s men will play in Europe’s elite club competition for the second time in three seasons.

Villa can also end their 30-year wait for a major trophy in Wednesday’s Europa League final as they look to complete one of the club’s finest campaigns in recent memory.

Yet despite the success, Cash believes they are still overlooked with Emery not making the six-man shortlist for the Premier League’s manager of the season.

He said: “I was quite surprised by that, to be honest.

“With the circumstances that we've had in the summer, we obviously couldn't really spend a lot of money - and what's been going on behind the scenes or whatever.

“To do the job that he's done is unbelievable.”

Cash continued: “We've never really (got that recognition), over the years - I think people still don't see us as one of the top four or five teams.

“The consistency that we've shown over the last three or four years since the manager's come in, I think we're more than in the conversation of being a top-five Premier League team, with the demands and the consistency you need.

“Sometimes, it's good to go as the underdog, because you can just sort of scrape along!

“I don't know, maybe people will start to realise and recognise that we are a top team, and we're hard to play against, especially at Villa Park, where there's such a great atmosphere.”

Villa proved too strong for the Reds as they delivered one of their best performances of the season’s second half to erase any fear of being overhauled in the race for the top-five.

Emery was rewarded for selecting his strongest possible team as Ollie Watkins scored twice, with Morgan Rogers and John McGinn also on the mark.

Villa had taken just one point from their previous three matches and Cash said: “We'd been speaking about it in the week, that it was such an important game - to get over the line.

“We'd done such good work to get to the position we're in so with have a couple games left, you don't want to let it slip.

“You don't want to let your standards drop just because we're near the end.”

Villa now take on Freiburg in Istanbul in midweek and the right-back continued: “On Friday, we had a chance to win the game and make sure that we cement Champions League football.

“For the club overall it is like a global thing, the Champions League is massive.

“People could say resting players and stuff, but we had one job, that was to win and then we go again on Wednesday and we have to win again.

“We've got the same attitude, the same winning mentality and hopefully we can go and enjoy it and get a result.”