Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has provided his assessment of his side’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth at Villa Park on Saturday.
Goals from Douglas Luiz, Jacob Ramsey and Emiliano Buendia secured all three points for Villa, as we also kept another important clean sheet at home to show good balance in both phases of the game.
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That’s now four games unbeaten with three wins and a draw, having scored seven and conceded just one. With an improvement in our home form now too, it was no surprise that Emery was pleased with the result, and he was keen to stress that some aspects of the performance, both collectively and individually, were the best since he arrived.
“After the matches we lost to Arsenal and Leicester, the reaction has been fantastic,” he told BBC Sport. “Today is maybe the best 90 minutes we played here since I arrived. We conceded some chances to them, but I think it is normal because they are in a good moment.
“I’m happy today and I want to share it with the players and supporters.”
On Jacob Ramsey, he added: “He is young; he is here and involved at Aston Villa. He has the potential to learn some things and understand tactically what we want. Today he played the best match since I’m here.”
Emery went on to provide a more extended assessment of the performance, pinpointing key areas that were worthy of praise but also others where we still need to improve.
It was clear after losing those back-to-back home games against Arsenal and Leicester City that he was both annoyed and upset about the manner of the performances, and so we’ve made serious improvements in that regard since, to become more compact and organised, and ultimately harder to beat.
That was seemingly the aim to give ourselves a foundation again, and with the attacking quality that we’ve also shown, it’s created an excellent balance that has led to a winning formula and style being developed.
As ever, Emery was keen to analyse the areas where we still need to improve and where he’ll demand more over the international break, but now it’s an opportunity to recharge and regroup, and prepare for a crucial run of fixtures that will determine how high up the Premier League table we can finish this season.
“First is to get the clean sheet and second is to win through the clean sheet, both are very important,” he later told VillaTV. “Before the match against Crystal Palace, we conceded eight goals in two matches here, which was completely upsetting for us.
“We reacted very well. The last two matches, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, we achieved clean sheets and won. We played two very good matches and did it in a fantastic way.
“We started very well in the first 20, 25 minutes but after our goal, they reacted and started playing, trying to push up and created some chances.
“We have to keep thinking about how we can react during the match. After the first half, in the dressing room, we were speaking about it and in the second half our reaction was very good.
“We started controlling the game again like we did in the beginning. At the end of the match, they had some chances with Solanke because they attacked us with long balls.
“They did it well but they didn’t score. At the end, we deserved to win and to score a second and third goal and to share it with our supporters.”