Aston Villa boss Unai Emery believes the confidence of his players is improving after they continued their impressive start to the Champions League campaign with a 3-1 victory over Viking.

Villa Park is becoming a fortress in Europe and they have now won their last 12 major European home games and made it three from three in this year’s Champions League.

They picked up their latest win thanks to Ross Barkley’s opener and Emi Buendia’s penalty, as well as an own goal from Henrik Heggheim.

Villa would have finished the night top of the Champions League table but for Viking’s Peter Christiansen replying late which also denied them a third straight clean sheet.

Emery admits there is still work to do but his side took another step forward.

He said: “We are delighted how we are responding in our demands. Respecting the competition, respecting the opponents and how we are improving things.

“Through those issues I think we played a good match, serious match. Respecting them and following the plan we set up, then individually the players trying to display their quality.

“Today mixing those objectives, I think we did a good job and some players they did one step forward in their confidence, feeling better and understanding tactically and playing football.”

Villa have won twice in front of their own fans in the Champions League but are still waiting to open their home account in the Premier League which Emery hopes will come against Manchester City on the weekend.

He added: “We are challenging each match as a objective to get better to become consistent in Europe and playing matches in the Premier League and trying to be very demanding. How we must feel strong and confident.

“I think there is still work to do, we did a very good match and Champions League is very difficult, but we have nine points.

“Two matches winning here at home. In the Premier League we are still not winning but in Champions League league winning two good matches against Fenerbahce and today and now can feel confident and comfortable for the next challenges.

“The atmosphere was fantastic how we are enjoying Champions League with our supporters and enjoying together.”

Viking boss Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim saw his side draw with Bayern Munich last week but were blown away in the first half by Villa a week later.

Aarsheim was happy with the way his side responded in the second half but says they had too much respect for their Premier League opponents before the break.

He said: “Second half was much more like Viking wants to be. Maybe we had too much respect in the first half, they were all over us and didn’t create much which is really rare for Viking.

“In the locker room, we talked we have to be braver with the ball and did much better with the ball. We ended up drawing 1-1 in the second half that is something we can build on.”