Emery's side are back in the hunt to finish in the Premier League's top five thanks to Youri Tielemans' 12th-minute header at Villa Park.

Seventh-placed Villa extended their unbeaten run on home turf to 20 games in all competitions, lifting them level with sixth-placed Nottingham Forest and fifth-placed Chelsea on 60 points.

After bouncing back from their dismal FA Cup semi-final loss to Crystal Palace last weekend, Villa will hope their rivals falter over the weekend as the top five race heads for a dramatic climax.

"If we weren't winning today, forget it completely," Emery said. "Today, we got more or less to be close to Europe. Wow, fantastic, brilliant. The best gift we can achieve after it is the Europa League or the Champions League."

"Champions League, okay. We are not favourites to get it because there is Nottingham Forest in front of us, Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle. But we will fight for it, Europe, and hopefully we can fight for the Champions League."

Southampton wasted a chance to avoid a share of the lowest points total in Premier League history as Jamie Vardy's 199th Leicester goal inspired a 2-0 win at the King Power Stadium.

Simon Rusk's bottom-of-the-table team are trying to avoid finishing with just 11 points - which would match Derby's low mark set in 2007-08. But Southampton's hopes of getting a 12th point quickly faded against fellow relegated side Leicester.

Ipswich fightback

After announcing last week that he will leave the club at the end of the season, the 38-year-old Vardy bagged a farewell goal as he put second-bottom Leicester ahead in the 17th minute.

The game was delayed for 11 minutes when referee David Webb was forced off with a head injury after colliding with Leicester's Jordan Ayew. Vardy cheekily blew the referee's whistle while he was being treated.

Leicester finally won for the first time since January as Ayew grabbed the second goal in the 44th minute. Southampton have now lost 28 of their 35 league games and have three matches left to avoid sharing the low points record with Derby.

Relegated Ipswich fought back from two goals down to draw 2-2 in Everton's penultimate match at Goodison Park. Kieran McKenna's third-bottom side trailed to Beto's 26th-minute goal and Dwight McNeil's effort nine minutes later.

But Julio Enciso's 30-yard rocket reduced the deficit in the 41st minute, and George Hirst equalised with 11 minutes left. Everton's emotional last match at Goodison before moving to their new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium next season comes against Southampton on May 18.

Second-placed Arsenal host Bournemouth in Saturday's late game as the Gunners warm up for their Champions League semi-final showdown with Paris Saint-Germain after losing 1-0 in the first leg on Tuesday.

Dwight Mcneil

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