Unai Emery has switched his goal from Premier League survival to securing a top-10 end after Aston Villa’s 3-0 win in opposition to Bournemouth.
Douglas Luiz, Jacob Ramsey and Emiliano Buendia all scored as mid-table Villa moved on to 38 factors with 11 matches remaining.
They have been solely some extent above the relegation zone when boss Emery formally began work as Steven Gerrard’s successor in November.
But after three wins of their final 4 video games, they’re now 14 factors clear and a part of the battle for Europe.
Emery mentioned: “Of course, today I am happy – first, with one thing, (which) is today maybe we can feel we are completely safe from the bottom teams.
“When I arrived here, of course, we were struggling more than we are now, at the bottom.
“And of course, we can add a new step, an objective, looking at the teams in the top 10 now. But they have an advantage over us, and we have to fight, starting behind them.
“But we are going to play here against Fulham, we are going to play here against Brighton, we are going to play at Brentford, at Chelsea. Of course, it is going to be very difficult, but we are going to try as well to add a new target in our minds.”
Luiz completed from shut vary to place Villa forward within the seventh minute, earlier than the hosts wrapped issues up with two late objectives, Ramsey slotting residence with 10 minutes of regular time to go and Buendia finishing the scoring with an 89th-minute header.
Bournemouth had gone near equalising simply previous the hour mark by a Philip Billing free-kick that was saved in high-quality type by Emiliano Martinez.
Gary O’Neil’s Cherries slipped a spot to nineteenth, some extent adrift of security, having did not additional enhance their survival bid after the shock 1-0 win over Liverpool final weekend.
O’Neil mentioned: “I don’t think we were well beaten. I think the last 10 minutes got a bit scrappy when we opened it up. I thought at 1-0 we were right in the game, created numerous opportunities, and weren’t clinical enough, couldn’t take them.
“We started too slowly, gave Aston Villa a little lift at the beginning, lost some individual duels that isn’t like us, let Villa wriggle out of some situations where we had good pressure.
“We need to do better from the situations we create, the control we had, the amount of times we arrived behind their back four in the match was a lot but we didn’t manage to convert.
“It was an even game that doesn’t really look that way now.”
There was a particular second within the 79th minute, prompting applause from each units of followers, as Bournemouth midfielder David Brooks got here off the bench to make his first look since being recognized with most cancers in October in 2021.
And O’Neil mentioned: “I’m delighted for David, he’s obviously been on a really tough journey for him and his family. He’s worked his socks off to arrive where he is at this moment.
“We obviously have to be sensible with his minutes. He’s got two weeks now of work, hopefully he’ll play for the under-21s in the week and then by the time we come back he’ll be available for longer than he is at the moment.”
