Jol rates Villa over Arsenal

Posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am and is filed under News.

Hamburg manager Martin Jol has rated Aston Villa as better than Arsenal ahead of tonight’s UEFA Europa League clash.

While both Villa and Hamburg have already qualified for the knockout rounds of the 2008/2009 UEFA Europa League, tonight’s match will be crucial in determining the seedings for Group F, which will in turn affect the draw for the knockout stages of the competition.

“The question is whether they will play with all their regulars,” Jol told ESPN. “The first-team of Aston Villa are better than Arsenal and, next season, Villa will be playing in the Champions League. They have a very clever manager and I cannot imagine him not wanting first spot. Villa are perhaps one of the best teams in England.”

Martin O’Neill has already confirmed that he will be resting two of Villa’s first team regulars for tonight’s match, with Gareth Barry and Martin Laursen set to watch the game from the sidelines. Jol is targeting a win in the match to boost his side’s confidence going into the Winter break.

“We want to win and we want to win the group,” Jol concluded. “There is not so much pressure now because we have already qualified for the later stages. But we want to give our fans a good finale to the season, in this competition and when the Bundesliga re-starts.”