Unai Emery makes clear Arsenal fixture point as Aston Villa without six players for Lille

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has made it crystal clear that his team's immediate priority is the upcoming Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg against Lille, not the forthcoming Premier League showdown with his former club Arsenal.

With Villa set to play their first European quarter-final in over two decades, the anticipation for the Ligue 1 side's visit to Villa Park is high. However, the weekend's match against Arsenal is also significant for Villa's ambitions of securing a top-four finish and a spot in next season's Champions League.

Despite the importance of the league encounter, Emery is adamant that his focus is solely on Lille for now. When questioned about whether the Arsenal game would influence his team selection for Thursday, he firmly responded: «No way.»

He added: «We are speaking about the match tomorrow in the Europa Conference League, we are not thinking about the match we are going to play. No way, it is not good for us or for me or everybody. I want to focus on the match tomorrow only.»

Ahead of Thursday's tie, Emery confirmed that Villa are without six players. Boubacar Kamara, Emiliano Buendia, Tyrone Mings and Jacob Ramsey are all injured long-term, while Marry Cash is nursing a thigh injury and Clement Lenglet «has a small problem». It's unclear at this stage if Cash and Lenglet will be available to face Arsenal on Sunday.

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Villa defender Pau Torres insists it is still possible to prioritise both a top-four finish in the league and winning the Conference League. “I think we have a really good squad, really