The two sides met just over 12 months ago in last season’s Champions League, when Unai Emery’s men claimed a 3-0 victory away from home.
Emery has guided his team to nine victories in their last 11 matches across all competitions despite a poor start to the season which saw him fail to win any of their opening six games.
Villa are improving
Villa currently sit sixth in the 36-team League Phase table after winning three of their opening four fixtures, and will aim to move into the top four by collecting a vital 3 points. Emery spoke on his side’s resilience and their urge for consistency, which is key this season.
“Resilience is something you have to feel. When you are struggling, you have to be resilient and wait for your better moment.
“We did it in two matches against Everton and Sunderland. We were resilient. Not great results but we were resilient because we were in a bad moment and we needed to be resilient and wait for our best moment.
“We’ve still got work to do in building the team, with the players who joined us getting better. This is the process we have, and how we are now getting good results through the commitment of the players, the focus on everybody, getting the responsibility we want. This is the way.
“Tomorrow, if we are relaxing because we played some matches before and we won, but we were not performing well with the mentality we need to get consistency.
"If we’re not keeping this consistency, we’re not going to win matches. This is the message now.”
Malen is in top form
Having won 14 of their last 16 matches at Villa Park in all competitions, Villa will be confident heading into the tie. One player who will be feeling the positivity is Donyell Malen who who started and scored in the 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv and has been crucial for Emery this season.
“He’s very motivated and he’s playing like he’s training. Everything he’s achieving now, we can see it before in the training sessions.
“His rhythm, his wishes, his body language is helping the team tactically in the structure we have to achieve our task.
“His qualities help him to score goals and make assists, but how he’s threatening opponents behind with his speed is very important for us.
“He’s clinical when he has chances to score.”
The Villans have bounced back
There is no doubt that Villa are on the up at the moment under Emery as he leads of the Europa League favourites into yet another battle. He says the surge of recent results is inspiring and he is glad they have bounced back.
"It's everything. The good results come with confidence and how we react inside.
"In the moment we were not performing well and were not together. It starts with me, and the players following and sharing the message."