As our objectives and expectations hit loftier heights this season, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery remains both grounded and realistic in his response.
A run of five wins in our last six Premier League games – scoring 11 goals while conceding just two – rightly has many of us dreaming of far exceeding our expectations when Emery first took charge in a dire situation last November.
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From sitting just outside the relegation zone on goals scored prior to his arrival to now moving up into seventh place in the standings and with a top-half finish now in our own hands, the progression and improvement has been significant and a thoroughly enjoyable process thus far.
However, while we appear to continue to be ignored by mainstream media – which is not actually a bad thing as we continue our work under the radar – the demands and expectations from within naturally rise and while a top-half finish was the main objective at the start of the season, there is a real chance of something more.
Having gained so much valuable experience and proven his coaching qualities throughout his career thus far though, Emery has been here before and understands how it all works.
While it would be easy for him to buy into the excitement and build on that feel-good factor with big statements and targets, the Spaniard has maintained a level-head about our situation and while he no doubt welcomes the speed of the progress made, he fully understands the challenge ahead of us still, and as a by-product of that, so do the players.
“We have to be very demanding but also responsible with our words. We’re excited about the possibility to be in a better position,” he told reporters, as per VillaTV. “We are in the top ten but from now until the end of the season, we have to be consistent because in the next step to get European positions we are fighting Chelsea, Liverpool, Brighton, Brentford.
“We are in there but we know we have to be very consistent, competing better than we are doing at home. The last two home matches we won and we improved, but not enough in my idea.
“We have to be demanding of ourselves and critique our matches, looking at the good things and critiquing the circumstances, tactically, which we have to improve.
“Tomorrow, that’s my first idea. I’m very excited, like our supporters, to play at home and try to show our best with the team transmitting to them good energy, good control of the game.
“My message to the supporters is we have to be together because it’s going to be difficult to have the position we have now and get up into the European positions.”
There is no let-up from Emery. He will continue to demand more from the players and keep them focused, as while they’ve done incredibly well to put us in this position currently, there is a real chance this season that we can achieve something no one would have predicted after that horrendous loss at Fulham spelt the end of Steven Gerrard’s tenure.
The Villa boss is of course right, it’s not going to be easy. While teams around us still have games in-hand and we face many of them in the coming weeks, it’s going to come down to how effectively and consistently we can implement Emery’s tactical instructions to achieve the best possible results.
He has spoken time and time again of wanting to have more control in games, to manage the tempo and thus limit the opposition’s threat and keep clean sheets. That in turn puts us in a strong position to use the attacking quality we’ve shown under him to go out and win games, having scored in every outing since he arrived.
If we can find a high level of performance in executing those respective game-plans, we have every chance of finishing where we want to be. However, Emery’s experience and know-how on how to manage these situations will continue to be key, as he has been spot on thus far in setting the tone for all concerned to follow.
