"Last week we lost against Fulham. And which players played against Fulham? And which players played against Nottingham Forest? We can lose and we can win with every player.”
It was a fair, if blunt, response to a fair question asking whether Unai Emery saw truth in the most obvious explanation for Villa's feeble showing against Tottenham.
Had he agreed the performance was simply the product of making so many changes – just as Vitor Pereira would do with Forest the following day – it might have suggested the Europa League did indeed have primacy.
Had they won, and all but secured a top-five finish, there would be no need to debate priorities any more.
Emery might also have pointed out that each of those drafted in on Sunday would consider themselves a very capable Premier League player. But rather than blame the selection, he referred to the previous two matches in which a side much nearer to what we would think of as his maximum-strength team was also sluggish at times.
Some of the confidence that Villa would not tie up in the finishing straight of this season, as they did two years ago to the detriment of their Conference League ambitions, was based on the idea the squad is a little deeper now than it was then.
It was clearly put under strain by the absence of three key midfielders a few weeks ago, and they missed John McGinn and Amadou Onana on Sunday. The news that McGinn, their totemic leader on the field, should be ready to play against Forest is important.
In a few years' time, this semi-final may not feel like a major turning point in Villa's progress. The potential fork in the road for their medium-term ambitions is whether they qualify for the Champions League, with its attendant riches, or not. Should Villa go on to win the final, of course, they will also achieve that target.
But Thursday night feels more emotionally significant. Having under-performed in two previous semi-finals under Emery, this game is the next frontier for a generation of fans.
Although Emery suggested otherwise on Wednesday, it also may yet prove to be the last good chance for the long-serving core of their squad – the team Dean Smith built and Emery developed – to win something together.
It will be sad if the best squad in Villa's recent history does not have a trophy-lifting moment before time inevitably begins to unravel it.
The league position will take care of the finance. This is about something else.
Listen to full commentary of Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest at 20:00 BST on Thursday on BBC Radio WM (95.6FM/DAB/Freeview 714)
And tune into The West Midlands Football Phone-Infrom 18:00 on weeknights
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