Aston Villa will take things game by game in their quest to qualify for the Champions League, Unai Emery pledged, as he noted their season has been "more up than down."

Villa sit third in the Premier League and are firmly on course to return to UEFA's premier club competition, with England overwhelmingly likely to get a fifth qualification spot.

However, their ambitions looked to be even loftier until recently, with some onlookers tipping Villa to challenge Arsenal and Manchester City for the title.

Ahead of hosting Brighton on Wednesday, Villa have lost their last two home Premier League games, having won eight in a row beforehand. 

They have not lost three in a row since November 2020 under Dean Smith, with the third match in that run coming against Brighton.

And the Opta supercomputer now rates their title hopes at a lowly 1.1%.

They are, however, assigned a 43.9% chance of finishing third and a 95.5% probability of making the top five.

Speaking to reporters at Tuesday's pre-match press conference, Emery said: "We are not thinking about the end of the season, we are thinking about now.

"We can speak about how we were in September, and we are enjoying the difference.

"We are enjoying the process, we are competing, we are feeling comfortable about how we are doing.

"It's been up and down sometimes, but more up than down, we went a lot of matches in a row winning."

Villa have won just two of their last seven midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Premier League games (D2 L3), though both of those victories were against Brighton (3-0 in April last season, 4-3 in December this season).

They could complete just their third Premier League double over the Seagulls, having previously beaten them home and away in 2022-23 and 2023-24, and Emery says the mood in the hosts' camp is positive, despite them dropping two more points in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Bournemouth.

"Now, we had two defeats at home, and we understand something like this could happen," the Spaniard said. 

"We analysed it with the players, we analysed those matches, and of course, we are trying to avoid making those same mistakes we made, or some circumstances we had.

"But now, I am positive. The players as well, they are working very well every day. They played a fantastic game on Saturday, competing fantastically at Bournemouth, and tomorrow, we have a new challenge."