Marco Silva is looking forward to testing his tactical acumen against Unai Emery tomorrow afternoon – hailing the Spanish coach’s achievements at Aston Villa as ‘incredible’.

The Fulham head coach played down the fact that the Craven Cottage clash will be his 150th game in charge of the Cottagers and heaped praise on how Emery has transformed the Villains from a side struggling against relegation to one that beat Bayern Munich in the Champions’ League last month.

“It’s a very good side we’re going to play against. They’re coming off the back of a brilliant season where they were at a high level, and we need to praise them for that and understood how good they’ve been playing. Even the start of the Champions League has been impossible to be any better for them because it’s been perfect in terms of results.

They will be fully motivated to get a good result but they know what they’re going to face as well. We have been playing well, we’re strong at home and we have been away from home as well. It’s going to be a very good game in my opinion and both teams will try to win the game.”

“Incredible … is the best word [to describe Emery’s work at Villa Park]. It’s not like it’s something that he’s not done in the past at other clubs if you look through his CV. Everything he’s done in his career speaks for itself and he doesn’t need me to mention these things. It’s almost impossible to have a better impact than what he’s had and you see how he’s improved the club and the results. He is one of the main reasons they’re playing Champions League football.”

Silva also shared his disappointment that Sasha Lukic is likely to miss at least a month of football having suffered a shoulder injury on Nations’ League duty with Serbia, whilst Timothy Castagne will miss Villa’s visit having also picked up a knock whilst representing Belgium.

“It was a mixed international break for us. Saša Luki? will be out and for more than one or two games, it’ll be more than that. Timo Castagne also came back with a problem with his hamstring so let’s see how long that’s going to be. They are going to be out for sure and the situation with Jorge Cuenca and Carlos Vinícius is that they are still out.”