Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was delighted after our 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest as we bounced back from defeat in midweek.
Ollie Watkins broke the deadlock just before half-time after Villa dominated in the opening 45 minutes, and although Forest threatened a fightback in the second half, a double from John McGinn ensured that we got back to winning ways immediately after slipping up against Arsenal.
The win moves us up to second place in the Premier League table temporarily with the remainder of this weekend’s fixtures still to come, but Emery was unsurprisingly pleased with how his players responded to secure all three points and continue our fantastic winning run at Villa Park.
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“I am so happy,” he told Sky Sports, as quoted by BBC Sport. “We had to recover our energy and our confidence. Here, at Villa Park the energy we create was really important.
“Forest are competitive. After the Arsenal match we met. The players and staff, how we are doing this season, how we are feeling, how we needed to keep the same consistency as before. How we needed to be together and strong.”
On the transfer window: “The players we have at the club are the most important players. But we are always competitive in the transfer window.
“So good, three points. We needed rest and work to get ready for this match. The players responded fantastically to the demands we set. We needed to score one goal when we had chances to do so. The key was that we didn’t concede a clear transition. We dominated with the possession, the positioning and we did it with our mentality to keep our momentum.
On John McGinn’s goals:Â “We need goals from the players, the strikers, the midfielders, everybody. I try to set ambitions individually. They have their targets and John McGinn needs to score goals like he did today.
On winning 11 consecutive matches at Villa Park: “It’s very important to have our supporters and how we are feeling today. Each match is a new challenge and how we are competing is the key. We are focusing on each match. Very important to get back to winning ways.”
Emery and his players will now prepare for a trip to Selhurst Park on Wednesday night as we look to continue this remarkable season by picking up a positive outcome against a side we have really struggled against in recent years.
Nevertheless, the important thing this weekend was to respond in the right way after our setback, get another win on the board to rebuild confidence and momentum, and so all those boxes were ticked after an impressive performance.
Villa have already moved to sign Alysson this month, and with our injury list continuing to grow, it remains to be seen how much more movement we see between now and the end of the January transfer window to strengthen where possible, as reinforcements will no doubt be key in helping us keep our current momentum going.
