Emery spoke to the press ahead of Aston Villa's FA Cup third-round meeting with West Ham United, who will be playing under new head coach Graham Potter.
Emery said, “Tomorrow, we are going to play in the FA Cup, trying to be protagonists.
“One of our objectives is to try to be a contender for a trophy, and in case of course the winner is playing next year in the Europa League.
“This is the objective for tomorrow, for us, with the match against West Ham.
“We are playing at home as well, and of course we are at the same time trying to build a team, trying to build our structure, and our objective will be clear for the second part of the season.”
The Villa boss has a lot of respect for Potter who will take charge of the Hammers for the first time this weekend.
“Of course, West Ham, they have very good players. It’s a good club as well.
“It’s not good news when they are changing a coach, but it’s an opportunity for him.
“We are going to respect West Ham and we are going to respect him, because he was successful when he was coaching before here in England.
“He has experiences, and I think he is going to do good work.”