Aston Villa boss Unai Emery praised his players for sticking to the gameplan in our 2-1 win over Chelsea, and downplayed talk of our Premier League title chances.
Villa were poor in the first half at Stamford Bridge, and we found ourselves 1-0 down at the break and needing changes to help turn the game around to keep our winning run going.
Through a combination of Emery tactical tweaks and a big reaction from the players on the pitch, we were able to produce yet another comeback as a double from Ollie Watkins fired us to victory to continue to establish ourselves in third place in the table.
Want more Villa news? Subscribe to Talk Villa+ below for ad-free weekly newsletters, exclusive articles and much more sent directly to you. The TalkVilla podcast is also now available, have a listen, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. UTV!
That in turn makes it 11 consecutive wins across all competitions, and with Arsenal away in midweek, Emery was unsurprisingly asked about our title chances as we continue to set an incredible pace at the top end of the standings.
While the Villa boss wouldn’t be drawn on that, he praised his players for their resilience to produce yet another fightback, and particularly Watkins, who proved to be decisive off the bench as we were much-improved in the second half.
“We kept the same game plan we had at the first half, but the first half they were playing fantastic,” Emery said, as quoted by BBC Sport. “They were dominating. We couldn’t get the ball easily. We were defending low, we are defending well. We didn’t concede corners, only one corner and they score. But we needed to be passionate and try to keep being resilient and we were speaking after the first half in the dressing room.”
On what he told the substitutes as they came on:Â “We were getting better but we needed to change some fresh legs and as well different players.”
On Ollie Watkins’s performance:Â “He was so, so focused. Keeping the game plan like we planned and doing his tasks, he’s normally getting his numbers and today scoring goals is fantastic.”
On the chance to go level with league leaders Arsenal if they beat them on Tuesday:Â “We are playing against Arsenal and our mentality is to compete strongly. And we are not going to speak about our target in the league until we are in the day 34 because there are teams contending with a huge power to get points like Liverpool, like Chelsea and they are keeping contending more than us to be there. Of course we are performing very well, we are in a row winning matches, we are competing fantastic, we competed first half fantastic and we were struggling. But the second half more or less like this season we are progressively getting better and being humble.”
On if he sees his side in the title race:Â “No, 38 matches. If it finishes tomorrow then this match against Arsenal is finishing the league. There is still another 20 matches to play.”
While the players absolutely deserve credit for their role in the win as we showed grit, determination and desire to turn it around, it started with Emery’s changes, both in terms of personnel and tactical, as his in-game management came to the fore once again.
Admittedly, we were really poor in the opening 45 minutes and that has to improve as we surely can’t keep producing comeback after comeback, but the tweaks to get a foothold, become more of a threat as the second half progressed and the players who came on making a decisive impact, all combined to seal yet another memorable win this season.
