Pau Torres makes Champions League point as he embraces Aston Villa journey

Pau Torres is relishing his second season with Aston Villa after playing a key role in helping the club reach the Champions League.

Unai Emery's side finished fourth ahead of Tottenham and will be looking forward to August 29, the date of the Champions League draw. Villa's non-international players began returning to Bodymoor Heath on Monday as preparations start for the new campaign.

Villa will play their first friendly of the summer at the Bescot against Walsall next Wednesday, before they fly to Slovakia to take on Spartak Trnava. Emery's first-team will then jet off to the USA for friendlies against Columbus Crew, RB Leipzig and Club America before facing Athletic Bilbao in Walsall and then Borussia Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park a week before the new season kicks off at West Ham.

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"I needed the holidays because the last season was a tough one," Torres said on VillaTV. "When you have time outside your country, you need to come back. I enjoyed my summer

"When I met some friends and we spoke about my first year here, obviously we commented about the achievements with the club and myself as well. I spoke with them about it and at the end, you stop and think about your first season. I am really happy with the season.

"It is nice to see your teammates again and speak about the summer. Now we start again with the amazing season in front of us. I am really, really excited.

"As well, we have now six weeks in front to start again the work we were doing last season and to spend time with our teammates. It is a good moment in the year to prepare for the new season.

"The players prefer to just play games! We have seven games against really good teams so we need to be competitive in the pre-season.

"We have a tough season in front of us with a great challenge like the Champions League, so we need to be ready and prepare to play in the same way in all the competitions. The Premier League is so important but also tough. During the first months we will play in the Champions League. We are excited and we want to play against big teams."

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