Aston Villa: Kings or Kingmakers? Villa enter the main race in the Premier League title race

The last time Villa lifted the top tier honors – beating Leeds 3-0 in the League Cup – Prodigy’s Firestarter knocked Take That’s cover of How Deep Is Your Love off the top spot in the charts, and Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave has just won an Oscar.

David Beckham had not yet made his England debut, while Cash, Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Emi Buendia had not been born.

It has been a long wait, with Villa having lost two FA Cup finals and two League Cup finals since then.

Emery, who won the Europa League with Sevilla and Villarreal in previous rounds, said on his first day as coach that the main goal is to win the title. Last season’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to eventual winners Crystal Palace still stings.

The Europa League semi-final defeat to Olympiacos 18 months ago, and the dramatic Champions League quarter-final exit to Paris Saint-Germain in April, show they are getting closer.

Captain John McGinn told reporters: “The semi-finals in the Conference League and the quarter-finals of the Champions League were big nights for us, big moments in which we did not achieve any goals.”

“Every time we go into a big game now, we have that determination in the back of our heads to prove that this team that we’ve built over the last five or six years is worth more than a quarter-final, worth more than a semi-final.

“Determination, I can feel it this year. I can feel that we want to prove a point. I think until we do, there are always going to be questions asked. As a leader, you might feel it twice as much, but when that day finally comes, you’ll feel it positively, twice as much.”