'We have our own power' - Unai Emery delivers defiant message on Aston Villa's financial restrictions

Villa sit third in the Premier League despite being heavily restricted in their spending as they look to stay on the right side of Uefa’s fair play rules.

While title rivals Manchester City have signed Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi, Villa sold Donyell Malen to give them more wriggle room in the market.

They were also gazumped by Tottenham in their efforts to sign midfielder Conor Gallagher but Emery remains defiant.

He said: "We have our own way. And we are confident, we have very good players.

“We are a huge club, we have fantastic supporters. Villa Park is special, it’s a fortress.

“But we don’t have the potential to sign, for example, Manchester City signing Semenyo.

“Like Tottenham signing Gallagher. OK but we have our own power and we will exploit our capacity.

“We are positive and have enough positive energy to get to the challenges that we have. - without the power another team can have.”

Villa, who are attempting to sign Tammy Abraham as Malen’s replacement, were fined £9.5million last summer for breaching Uefa’s rules and must tread carefully to avoid further sanctions.

Midfielder Jacob Ramsey was sold to Newcastle for £30m to ease the pressure, with forward Evann Guessand their only big money signing of what was a difficult summer.

Emery said: “We are not contenders! There are other teams with more capacity than us.

“But we are competing with them. Now on game 22, we are third.

“Why? Because the players are responding fantastically to the work we are doing.

“We are creating something special here. More than the capacity to buy everything we want.”