Unai Emery interview: Aston Villa head coach on 'key moment' in season as he reveals the secrets of his longevity

Aston Villa's long season has been hugely impressive. They are fourth in the Premier League and into a European quarter-final. But coach Unai Emery knows that the decisive matches are ahead of them. "Now, we are in the key moment," he tells Sky Sports.

It helps that he has been here before even if few of his players can say the same. He talks of "protecting the players" in a period that will bring seven games in 19 days, the first of them against Wolves at Villa Park, live on Sky Sports this Saturday evening.

But for the most part the mantra remains the same. "We have to be ready to play. The objective is to be 100 per cent focused." Never a problem for Emery. He has spent the international break plotting a path through this busy schedule. It is a challenge.

He knows all about Lille, their quarter-final opponents in the Europa Conference League, but that feels an age away. "We have Manchester City first," he says, smiling. It is impossible to make selection plans anyway. "We came back and Matty Cash is injured."

Instead, he has thrown himself into the details, as ever, analysing the goals that have been conceded - too many of them of late, although allowing both Nottingham Forest and Luton to score twice did not prevent Villa from winning. Other incidents gnaw away.

"At West Ham, it was [Vladimir] Coufal. The cross was perfect. We made a small mistake and one second later it was a goal. Against Manchester United, a small mistake - a small mistake - and the cross from [Diogo] Dalot to [Scott] McTominay was perfect. Boom. Goal."

Unpreventable, then? Not exactly. "I tell the players that if we make a small mistake, the opponent will use it because the quality of the opponent is amazing. [Stopping that] is the next step. It is the