Unai Emery lauded his Aston Villa players for taking responsibility for a poor start to the season but believes they have room for improvement despite their outstanding subsequent form.

Villa failed to score in their first four matches of the Premier League season and were winless after five, at which point they were in the bottom three of the table.

Emery's side have a remarkable nine wins in 10 since then, though, beating Arsenal last weekend to close to within three points of the league leaders in third place.

They are also third in the Europa League standings, with four wins from five, heading into Thursday's clash with Basel.

Yet Emery, while praising his players, thinks there is more to come, encouraging the team to maintain their high standards on and off the pitch.

"We're in December, and we still have a lot of matches to play in each competition," he said. "We have a lot of things to improve.

"How we were two months ago and how we are now is different. We are building an emotional structure inside to get everybody together and feel like we are doing.

"Even when we are not winning, we can feel the same. If we are sad, if we are happy, we must share our emotions in the dressing room, with our supporters and everyone else in Aston Villa.

"On the field, how we are being responsible. The players took responsibility after we were losing some matches and not performing well in August and September.

"We were progressively getting better and the players had total responsibility. They are showing me they are being mature, responsible and ambitious in how we need to work every day to set our standards."

And Emery believes Villa's mentality will be key to getting a result in Switzerland, adding: "The most important thing is how we are building the team, how we are achieving in our process during each competition, our stronger mentality in everything.

"Through it, try to show tomorrow how we can compete, how we can continue building our structure with the players in our tactical idea in Europe against Basel, because to play away is always difficult. To play in Europe is always difficult.

"Basel are going to play at home and they won two matches at home in this competition. They are feeling strong through their stadium with their supporters and they will be facing us so, so motivated."