Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has outlined three important demands of himself, his coaching staff and the players as we look to maintain our impressive Premier League form.
Villa host Leicester City on Saturday as we aim to register four wins in our last five outings, with our positive run of results moving us to within four points of sixth place in the standings.
READ MORE: Key talking points from Emery’s press conference ahead of Villa vs Leicester
However, with 18 games remaining this season, there is still a long way to go and after a relatively quiet January transfer window, it remains to be seen if we can continue to pick up wins and remain in contention for a European qualification spot.
Given the improvement that we’ve seen under Emery thus far, there is confidence that we can maintain our form and he’ll continue to get more out of the players at his disposal. The Spanish tactician has been clear on three particular areas that are crucial, and those are not to become complacent, be more consistent and improve our performances at home.
“In football if you relax you are going to get beaten,” he said, as quoted by The Express and Star. “It is very important to continue improving, continue pushing and to continue remembering. Sometimes you do something good but then can’t do it again. If you are not remembering, maybe you won’t do well the next match.
“I want to improve, trying to play for 90 minutes, being consistent offensively and defensively and trying to show our best performance individually. That is our challenge.
“At home we are not being consistent. We won against Manchester United, lost against Liverpool and drew with Wolves. It is not very bad but not very good either.
“Against Leeds, we got the three points but didn’t deserve it, that is the reality. We needed our goalkeeper and to be clinical.
“We want to play with more control of possession and positioning, trying to be focused, recovering the ball as soon as possible. That is the big challenge to improve.”
Villa have been excellent away from home under Emery having won all three league games on the road, and that is perhaps because we can adjust our tactical approach and utilise our qualities on the counter-attack more and hurt teams.
In contrast, the emphasis is on us to take control of games at Villa Park, and while we’ve looked controlled and comfortable in possession for long periods in games, we’re not doing enough with the ball and that perhaps leaves us susceptible to dropping points with teams having a chance if they’re clinical.
Emery is absolutely spot on about guarding against complacency as we can’t just sit back and admire our improvement so far under his stewardship as good as it’s been and be content with that, and he’s also completely right in his assertion that we need to be more consistent as that has been a big issue for us for a long time.
If we can improve our performances at home to match what we’re doing away and find the right balance and tactical tweaks to be more effective in both phases of the game, then we’ll be confident of continuing to climb the Premier League table in the coming weeks.