Unai Emery insisted it was too soon to call his Aston Villa side Premier League title contenders despite their impressive 1-0 win over champions Manchester City.

Leon Bailey’s deflected strike in the 74th minute proved to be the winner as Villa equalled a club record with a 14th consecutive home victory.

Pep Guardiola said Villa could “definitely” be among those still in the fight come the end of the season but Emery insisted they still have much work to do to catch up with the likes of City, Arsenal and Liverpool.

The Villa boss said: "We are not contenders. There are seven teams who are contenders more than us. 

"Now we are on game 15. We are going to play game 16 on Saturday against Arsenal and we are going to focus on it. We are happy to be third but to keep it is going to be very, very difficult.

"While we are there we are going to try to keep it. If we keep progressing during the season, playing matches and winning like we are doing maybe we can be a contender but I think we need more time.

"We can believe but we are not contenders. There are another seven teams and that didn't change. It is game 15. Maybe by game 30 or 32, but not yet."

The win gave Emery his first over Guardiola as a rival coach at the 14th attempt — 15 years to the day since they first came up against one another.

He admitted: "I like to prepare matches against the best teams, the best players and the best coaches.

"When you are playing at a high level the opponents are of a high level. But beating him for me is not something special. It is really a process I am doing as a coach."

Meanwhile, Guardiola had no complaints with the final result, which saw Villa leapfrog his side into third place in the table.

The City boss said: "The better team won. Aston Villa was better than us. We struggled. It was really difficult."