Aston Villa continue their push for a Europa League place

After a 1-0 victory over Fulham at Villa Park on Tuesday night lifted the team up to fifth in the Premier League standings, Unai Emery said his Aston Villa team should be "proud" of their accomplishment. During a dominant first half for the hosts, defender Tyrone Mings scored the game's sole goal in the 21st minute. After the interval, Fulham made progress but was unable to penetrate a staunch Villa defence as the hosts maintained their stunning comeback under Emery.

When the Spaniard took over his first match at the beginning of November, Villa was 15th in the standings. Since then, they have won 12 of their subsequent 19 games to move into the Europa League playoff picture. With two more games played than Liverpool in seventh place, Villa are fifth in the rankings, one point ahead of sixth-place Tottenham, who have a game in hand against Manchester United on Thursday, and four ahead of Liverpool.