Aston Villa travel to Monaco in the Champions League group phase on Tuesday, hoping to consolidate their position in the automatic qualification places.

Should they win, the hosts will move level on points with Unai Emery's side in the table, leaving both sides with plenty to play for at Stade Louis II.

Since losing to Nice at the end of October, they have struggled for consistency in all competitions, and they have failed to win any of their four matches since the turn of the year.

A run of five wins in their last 16 matches has seen Monaco fall outside the automatic qualification places in the Champions League, miss out on silverware in the Trophee des Champions to Paris Saint-Germain and get knocked out the Coupe de France by Reims.

Their European campaign got off to an excellent start with a 2-1 victory against Barcelona back in September, followed by a draw against Dinamo Zagreb and further victories over Red Star Belgrade and Bologna.

Last time out in the competition, they were well beaten by Arsenal in London, as Bukayo Saka struck twice and Kai Havertz finished off the Ligue 1 visitors.

That defeat to the Gunners leaves Adi Hutter's men with work to do to qualify automatically for the round of 16, but with games against two teams currently occupying the automatic qualification spots, the qualification picture in the group could still look very different come the end of the group phase.

Monaco will point to their strong home record this season as a reason to believe they can get a result against Villa this season – the hosts have only lost once at home in their three Champions League contests at Stade Louis II this year, and they have only lost twice at home in Ligue 1 this season too.

Les Rouges et Blanc are currently three points off eighth-placed Lille in the final automatic qualifying position, but the group table is so tightly contested that there are plenty of clubs in the race and only eight positions to fill.