Champions League would make Villa's breakthrough 'sustainable'

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Are we nearly there yet? The long, lumpy third act of Aston Villa's season, encapsulated in the past week by two entirely contrasting games, has been crawling towards this point.

It is understandable that any nerves at Villa's failure to nail down Champions League qualification already have obscured just what an achievement it would be, especially after they were stuck in the starting blocks for a month.

But to be in a position where, with three games to go, a win in any one of them will deliver the prize that potentially unlocks the next stage of the club's rise is still something to celebrate.

That is not to downplay the significance of trying to win an actual trophy in Istanbul next week, which would be not only a thrill many Villa supporters have never known, but a crowning moment for the club's best squad since their revered European champions.

The past two games illustrate the junction Villa have now reached. Despite their drop-off in results in the second half of the season - 20 points from the past 18 league games following 39 in the first 18 - Villa have not suddenly lost the ability to be an outstanding team.

Their dominance of the second leg against Nottingham Forest, arguably the peak performance of the Unai Emery-Villa era to date, confirmed that. They overwhelmed an in-form side from the first whistle, maintaining a standard and intensity beyond all but the best in the Premier League, let alone the Europa League. No wonder they are prohibitive favourites to beat Freiburg.

Yet it was always unrealistic to imagine they could achieve the same standards in an entirely different setting less than 72 hours later.

Emery was unusually facetious in one of his interviews afterwards, at a question over why he had made so few changes. But the answer was obvious enough. While Villa's squad is deeper than two years ago, not all of it is yet at the level to sustain their best work to the end of two competitions.