Unai Emery stresses importance of Aston Villa’s win over Leicester - Victory keeps Villa’s top-four challenge on course.

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery is hopeful Leon Bailey will grow in confidence after he scored his first goal of the season against Leicester City this afternoon. Villa took the lead through Barkley just before the hour mark, but were pegged back shortly after as Stephy Mavididi scored at the far post following a strong save from Emi Martinez.

Report as Aston Villa secured a win against Leicester ; Ross Barkley opened the scoring after the break but Stephy Mavididi slammed home the equaliser shortly after; Leon Bailey restored the lead with

Ruud Van Nistelrooy got off to a dream start as Leicester boss when they picked up a 3-1 win at home to West Ham before coming from 2-0 down to take a superb point against Brighton. Since those two games,

Aston Villa got their Premier League top-four ambitions back on track with a 2-1 win over Leicester. Villa’s quest for a second successive year in the Champions League has been hamstrung by inconsistency this season,

Aston Villa have had a taste of the big time and they want more of it next season. Unai Emery's side have taken to the Champions League like a duck to water and they are on course for reaching the last 16 of the competition.