Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has continued to demand more from his players ahead of our meeting with Brentford this weekend.
Villa are on a run of seven wins in our last eight Premier League games, and having moved up to sixth place in the table, expectations are growing as we target European football next season.
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However, the difficult games keep coming and Brentford away is undoubtedly up there with our biggest challenges to date, and Emery is fully aware of that as he looked ahead to the encounter in his pre-match press conference on Thursday.
What stood out the most though was the Spanish tactician’s elite, winning mentality, as the message to his players is very clear in that he is still demanding more and is refusing to allow any hint of complacency to creep into our preparation or play.
While it’s hoped that ultimately results in another win this weekend, Emery continues to show and communicate why he is one of the best coaches in the game, and it’s the mindset and approach that we need if we wish to continue to compete at a higher level.
“I don’t like a lot to remember [what happened] before, only try to analyse and improve,” he responded when asked what impressed him most in our win over Newcastle Utd, as per VillaTV. “I know we played a very good match against Newcastle. We can’t stop remembering the last match and how pleased we are. We have to be keep being consistent and demanding, and of course, as well, a little bit critical trying to get better.
“We have to be strong defensively [vs Brentford], we have to adapt in a tactical way. If we don’t control the game better than we were doing against Chelsea and Leicester, maybe we will not win. That is our challenge.
“Our performance against Newcastle was maybe our best at home during my time here, but it’s not enough.”
He went on to reiterate that he isn’t allowing the players to relax or stop now, and that goes for him too in terms of how he analyses each game and prepares the team for the next fixture.
Emery stressed the importance of remaining humble and continuing to strive to be better and demanding more of ourselves, and with Brentford’s strong home form in mind, it’s going to take an improved performance from Villa on Saturday to return home with all three points.
Meanwhile, the Villa boss also had no interest in being distracted by contract talks, as he was asked again about Ollie Watkins and whether or not he was close to signing a new deal.
“We can’t stop now for some individual circumstances with their contracts because there is only one month left and seven matches,” he added. “And we will have time to decide, individually, each situation.”
Time will tell how the run-in plays out and where we finish, but while we’ve seen the job Emery has done thus far on the pitch and through his work in training, the mentality that he’s bringing to the squad is equally as important and it’s hopefully shifting the demands and expectation within the group as to what we can achieve moving forward.