SPURS AHEAD OF VILLA: EMERY

Villa manager says his team are underdogs as they try to compete with bigger-budget clubs

Unai Emery said Tottenham Hotspur are "favourites" to finish above his Aston Villa team due to their bigger budget, as the top-four hopefuls prepare to meet in the English Premier League on Nov 3.

Villa visit north London five points clear of Ange Postecoglou's men and have finished above Spurs in the past two seasons. But Emery insisted that Tottenham's greater resources made them the likely winners for this match and to also finish higher in the league.

"They are the favourites in front of us for the season and favourites for the match on Sunday," he said on Nov 1.

"But we are competing and we are being confident in how we are doing our way.

"We are trying to be contenders with those teams like Tottenham, Chelsea or Newcastle, to compete with them in the top seven, top six - it is a really great match." Emery, whose team have made an electrifying start to their Champions League campaign, added: "I have to tell everybody, there are another seven teams in front of us in the beginning, with the budget.