Will Emery look at the league table?

At last, he said it - "Day 33. Now we can feel contenders to be in the top five."

It is a mere footnote to the eventual outcome, but on Sunday evening Unai Emery finally accepted the notion that his team are serious players in the race for a Champions League place.

Questioned about it nearly every week as Villa climbed the table before Christmas, Emery insisted that at least seven clubs were more strongly-placed to qualify for Europe next season, and that only if Villa were still that high at matchday "30 or 32" could the idea be seriously entertained. After arguably his team's most accomplished performance so far – among quite a few to choose from – there was no point denying it any more.

Not that it matters anyway - we can see the league table for ourselves. Almost all managers sometimes claim they never look at the table but are entirely focused on their team's preparation for their next game and making sure the performance is good. I'm sure I've met some managers before now who really can deny the natural human urge to look up how their rivals are doing.

Emery, however, you can imagine actually achieving this. His mental bandwidth already filled to capacity as he studies the game from the technical area. And beforehand too. Ollie Watkins tells us that Emery held three team meetings on the day of the Arsenal game itself "to drill in what we need to do".

Villa's perfect weekend – their win following Tottenham's defeat making for a momentum swing – may also pull up their European form again too. Villa are heading to France with a 2-1 lead over Lille, after what seemed an oddly deflating win at home last Thursday. They had led 2-0, but Lille might easily have scored more and they served notice on Villa that they were their toughest opponents so far.

Given a bigger advantage, Emery could have taken a chance to rest some of his top-liners, but he may find there is no better antidote to tiredness than the winning feeling they had at Arsenal.

Perhaps he will have to consult his sports scientist's data even more closely before selecting his team for Thursday - for which player, after experiencing the adrenaline rush at the Emirates Stadium, would volunteer to take a rest and miss out on a single minute?

Lille v Aston Villa – live commentary on BBC Radio WM, 17:45 BST on Thursday

BBC Radio WM Football Phone-In, weeknights 18:00 BST