Following Aston Villa’s 1-0 victory over Man City at Villa Park, Unai Emery took a seat with the media.
In the second half, Leon Bailey’s deflected drive looped over Ederson, and Villa moved up to third place without a reply from the champions. Here are all of Emery’s comments from his press conference following the game.
Was that the best you could have done?
“Playing against Man City, who also won the Champions League and the title.” Taking charge of the game for ninety minutes is a tough task, but we succeeded.
We controlled the attack in the high press and generated a lot of opportunities. We had faith. In my career, I hope to continue developing as a coach and with the team I’m working to assemble over the coming weeks, months, and years.
“Today was excellent, but we need to maintain equilibrium. The team is happy in the dressing room, but Saturday presents the next obstacle. We’ll be back to concentrating on Saturday tomorrow.
Was it the high press that you were concentrating on?
“We completed the high press, and we are succeeding more often than not at home as well. It requires organization on our part, especially when playing against City, since it is challenging to recover the ball from players who exude such confidence in their performance. While working, we were strict with one other. We did an amazing job and were really well-organized.
How does it feel to defeat Pep at last?
“I always like to prepare matches against the best teams, players, and coaches. That’s how I started as a coach 20 years ago, and I started playing against Pep Guardiola.” The opportunities are there when you play at the high level we do. For me, beating him is just a part of the process I go through as a coach; it’s nothing remarkable.”
Are you serious contenders for the title, according to Guardiola?
“There are seven more teams that are contenders than us, so we are not one.” Day 16 will be against Arsenal. Today is Day 15. We have to concentrate. We are pleased with our third place, but maintaining it will be quite challenging. While we’re there, we’ll attempt
How are you going to get your guys ready for Arsenal?
“We will first try to recover the players by resting.” We have to put all of our efforts into Villa Park and establish a powerful environment. They are sending their energies to us. We’ll strive to perform both individually and as a cohesive unit to play excellent football.
“After that, it was really challenging to implement our game plan against Man City, but we succeeded more often than not. We should have won because of it. We avoided having opportunities against us and instead created them. We deliberately avoided their offending corners. Our job tonight was excellent. The players did an excellent job at what they did.
Why don’t you compete for the title?
“There are still a lot of matches to be played because there are a lot of teams that are contenders at the beginning and we are in day fifteen.” We can become contenders later in the season if we continue to play games and win like we are today, but not right now. I believe we require additional time. Though there are seven teams that were competitors at one point, we can still believe that we are not among the contenders. It might alter on day thirty or day thirty-two. Not quite yet.
How do you feel about your first 50 games now that you are in command of your 50th?
“I can go back in time and remember how we were at the beginning of this process. We suffered a 4-2 home loss to Leicester and Arsenal. We were not supposed to give up eight goals in two games at home. The way we responded at a meeting with the players was crucial; we built on our idea and approach and were really demanding. The players, in my opinion, responded really well, and given what we started doing at that point, I believe we will continue to hold ourselves to a high standard.
Just how far will you push Villa?
“My focus is on next Saturday.” Naturally, we were considering our chances of winning, losing, or drawing before the game today. Winning We are eager to take on Arsenal, the top team, on Saturday.
Since Moussa Diaby did not start in the first eleven for the past two games, how would you sum up this season thus far?
He is adjusting to our way of life. We couldn’t be happier with him. We are working as a team to develop and forge a solid foundation among the players; naturally, some players are more or less always in this starting lineup.
“Our players must participate in the procedure. Moussa Diaby is one of them, although she is playing quite well. Although his adaptation is progressing nicely, there is still time to secure additional solo performances. He played until the last 20 minutes of tonight, staying true to the process and paying close attention to the idea.
