French left-back Lucas Digne will stay at Aston Villa for the coming season despite speculation to the contrary.

Manager Unai Emery has come out and stated that Digne will not be leaving the club.

Digne, who started Villa's three games since the season started, was impressive in a 5-0 win over Hibs in their Europa Conference League play-off.

Post-game, Emery stated: “We need two very good left backs and now we have an injury to Alex Moreno. Lucas Digne, always, we will have the respect of him because he's very important for us.

“And then we were managing with him at the beginning of the season of the possibility (him leaving) maybe, if it was good for him, it was good for the club and we could have in the squad two good left-backs like with him and Alex Moreno.

“That could be a possibility. But today, tonight, he's more closer to staying here than to leave."

He added: “Now Alex Moreno is injured, he's playing consistently. For us the left back (position) is very important because usually we are adding our left back to be higher, more of a protagonist offensively than the right full-back.

“It's very important to get him into the attacking third with the quality he has and with the commitment he's showing us."