Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was delighted with his side’s win over Leicester City on Tuesday night, and he had special praise for Bertrand Traore.
Ollie Watkins gave us the lead at the King Power Stadium with his sixth goal in six games on the road, but that was cancelled out by Harvey Barnes before the break as we went in level.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Leicester: Stunning Traore winner, key man decisive again
However, after Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was sent off, Villa ramped up our level of control and dominated possession, and we were eventually rewarded with a late winner courtesy of Traore in the 87th minute.
After pouncing on a poor pass on the edge of the box, he struck a superb first-time, curling effort over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net to secure all three points, which subsequently moved us up into seventh place in the Premier League table.
Villa did have to survive a late scare with VAR eventually overturning a penalty decision in favour of the hosts, but it was another impressive performance as we showed quality in our attacking play at times and dug in when needed too.
Speaking after the game, Emery was delighted with the result and praised the supporters, and although he conceded that it will be difficult to continue to compete for the European qualification spots given the quality of the teams around us, he believes we can do it if we maintain our current level.
“It was a very, very different match today to the one we played against Chelsea, and we had to adapt,” Emery told VillaTV. “They were both difficult matches but different. Our adaptation against Chelsea was perfect and our adaptation against Leicester was perfect.
“When they had one player less, we tried to compete the same and not use different ways to win, trying to respect them, firstly. We tried to get moments to score and be clinical, and we did it.
“Firstly, I want to remember our supporters – how they are supporting us, how they are pushing us. We’re enjoying it with them, they’re enjoying it with us – it’s very important. We’re progressing in the table and now we’re in the top ten.
“We’re competing with very big teams and it will be difficult to keep this position but we have possibilities if we keep being competitive and fighting like we are now.
“We’re being very demanding every day in training and when we are preparing for matches to try and catch the teams that are in European positions.”
Further, the Villa boss also had a word for Traore after his match-winning impact off the bench, and it’s clear that the 27-year-old is a much-loved personality in the dressing room.
Not only was he front and centre in celebrations with the fans and his teammates after the full-time whistle, but Emery spoke highly of him too and will be delighted with the impact he made in midweek.
“We are very happy with Bertrand Traoré. He’s a very appreciated man in the dressing room. He decided to help us, coming back from Turkey, and everybody appreciates the guy he is and how he can help us like he did today.”
Villa now switch our focus to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, as although we’ve now registered five wins in our last six league outings, we’ll be desperate to continue this run of form to see how high we can finish.
It won’t be easy again this weekend with our opponents scrapping at the wrong end of the table and needing points, and so we’ll need to produce a performance of a high standard, compete with them and hopefully our quality and confidence helps us on our way to three more important points.
UTV 👌✌🤜🍻👍👏👏😀😊