Boss Unai Emery has urged Aston Villa to avoid complacency as they eye the Premier League’s summit.
Victory over struggling Sheffield United on Friday will send Villa top and add weight to any title claims.
They would remain top at Christmas if Arsenal and Liverpool draw on Saturday after Emery took over when Villa were 14th in October last year.
They have won 15 straight home league games – including beating Arsenal and Manchester City – but Emery remains wary of the rock-bottom Blades.
“I have to try to keep the same motivation and the same preparation for the matches as we have been doing. I can remind them and myself of some matches we played before we started winning,” he said, with Villa third, a point behind leaders Arsenal.
“When we are not playing in our structure and organising our structure with and without the ball, even against the best team or bottom team in the table, we are closer to losing.
“My concern with the players is being consistent, to be consistent preparing the match, to be consistent during the match and focusing on our game plan.
“When we were winning against, more or less, the best teams in the Premier League like Arsenal and Manchester City in the last two matches at home we are now facing the same difficulty against Sheffield as against Arsenal and City.”
Boubacar Kamara is banned after his red card in the 2-1 win at Brentford and starts a three-game suspension.
Pau Torres, Bertrand Traore and Youri Tielemans are injured but Douglas Luiz and Lucas Digne will return.
Emery added: “Youri, we are thinking maybe not more than two weeks, but he is now working alone and recovering his injury in his calf. Pau Torres, it is his ankle. It’s a small injury.
“Every day coming is important to how he is improving, I don’t know if he will be available for Manchester United, but he could be.”
'Everything that could go wrong, did' - McGinn reflects on Olympiacos defeat
Aston Villa captain, John McGinn said that “everything that could have gone wrong, did” after their Europa Conference League semi-final first-leg defeat to Olympiacos on Thursday.
Ayoub El Kaabi scored a hat-trick for Olympiacos, netting twice in the first half, though Villa fought back through Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby.
El Kaabi converted a spot-kick before a deflected Santiago Hezze strike put the visitors back in control.
Douglas Luiz also missed a late penalty, leaving Villa with a two-goal deficit to overturn in the second leg next Thursday.
Asked what he felt went wrong for the Villans, McGinn, speaking to TNT Sports, said: "Not the game we wanted. We wanted a lot more control. We started the game well.
"They're a good side. We wanted a victory going to Greece. We showed we're capable of coming back.
"Mistakes all round tonight. We'll take responsibility, but it's up to us to go to Athens and turn it around because we're capable.
"They played very well tactically. They played the way we expected, so there were no surprises.
"Everything that could have gone wrong tonight did."
He added: "The manager was still positive in there. There's still a long way to go.
"We need to play a lot better than we did tonight, but we're more than capable of doing it.
"Hopefully we'll have a few players back. The onus is on us to attack Olympiacos and score some goals.
"We have a mountain to climb, but we know we're capable."
Europa Conference League: Aston Villa stunned by Olympiacos
Aston Villa were stunned by Olympiacos as they suffered a 4-2 home defeat in the Europa Conference League.
On what the Villa faithful hoped would be a famous night at Villa Park, they instead saw their team dispatched by their Greek opponents in the first leg of their semi-final encounter.
Ayoub El Kaabi scored a hat-trick for the visitors, who were 2-0 up inside 30 minutes on Thursday.
Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby struck either side of the interval to restore parity, but El Kaabi sealed his hat-trick from the penalty spot before Santiago Hezze added further gloss with a sensational finish. To add to Villa's misery, Douglas Luiz then missed a penalty late on.
In the other semi-final tie, Fiorentina took a 3-2 aggregate lead against Club Brugge.
M'Bala Nzola was Fiorentina's hero in stoppage time, scoring in the 91st minute to nudge the Serie A team ahead.
Hans Vanaken had scored from a penalty following a VAR check for handball in the 17th minute, cancelling out Riccardo Sottil's early opener, though Fiorentina restored their lead through Andrea Belotti before half-time in a frantic first half.
Thiago equalised for Brugge, but it was ultimately not enough.
Europa League: Wirtz and Andrich goals put Leverkusen on the brink, Marseille hold Atalanta
Bayer Leverkusen put one foot in the Europa League final as Florian Wirtz and Robert Andrich scored in Thursday's 2-0 semi-final first-leg win over Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.
Roma were masters of their own downfall as Wirtz opened the scoring after 28 minutes, Rick Karsdorp's horrible error allowing Alex Grimaldo to race into the area and tee up Wirtz to finish into an unguarded net.
Though Daniele De Rossi's hosts improved after the break, Andrich added a spectacular second with 73 minutes on the clock, the midfielder giving Mile Svilar no chance as he side-footed into the top-left corner from 25 yards out.
Roma should have pulled one back four minutes into stoppage time, but Tammy Abraham could only nod over from inside the six-yard box after a goalmouth scramble, and they now have it all to do in next week's second leg.
Leverkusen's unbeaten run for 2023-24 stands at 47 games across all competitions (39 wins, eight draws), and they are now overwhelming favourites to stamp their ticket to the final in Dublin.
The other semi-final tie remains in the balance at the halfway stage, with Atalanta being pegged back in a 1-1 draw with Marseille at the Stade Velodrome.
Having scored twice in La Dea's memorable win at Anfield in the last round, Gianluca Scamacca took in Teun Koopmeiners' pass before finishing low across goal 11 minutes in, but Gian Piero Gasperini's team couldn't hold on.
Chancel Mbemba was the unlikely goalscorer for Marseille, stepping out of defence to clip a 25-yard effort against the far post and in after 20 minutes.
Neither side could find a winner from there, meaning it's all to play for ahead of next week's return fixture at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo.
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