Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was delighted with his side after our 1-0 win over Arsenal on Saturday evening, courtesy of John McGinn’s goal.
After an incredible effort from the players in midweek in our win over Manchester City, it was to be expected that our energy levels would suffer and fatigue would be an issue.
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Despite that though, the squad dug in and produced a battling performance to secure all three points, making it 15 consecutive home league wins, an achievement that Emery was particularly pleased with when speaking about it after the game.
Again though, the Villa boss was keen to play down talk of our potential title hopes and top-four ambitions, as he continues to stress that although it’s a real achievement to see what we’ve done thus far after 16 games, he will only start thinking about those factors if we’re still in the same position in the latter stages of the campaign.
“Happy, I’m very happy,” he is quoted as saying by BBC Sport. “It was a tough match and we were tired, but we started the game well. They were imposing their position on the pitch, but our goalkeeper was amazing.
“We tried to defend and keep possession longer than we did. We competed and it was a fantastic three points in a tough week. We have to be happy but also keep balance.
“I’ve never achieved this [15 consecutive home league wins] and I won’t again in my future as a coach. But we have to try to understand we are competing well and the next challenge will be Sheffield United and another tough match.
“It is brilliant here at Villa Park with our supporters and how they are supporting us.
“I will speak again when we are in game 30-32 and if we are in the same position as now then maybe I can speak about it.
“At the start we are not a contender, it is only game 16. We are in (the top four) and must try to keep it. It is difficult, we are not dominating matches like we are here.”
Emery went on to praise our defensive performances in the last two games, having kept clean sheets against both Man City and Arsenal after struggling to secure a shut-out prior to that.
Although we’ve continued to impress, particularly at home, the defensive aspect has been in need of improvement, as if we can have a solid foundation and be more difficult to break down, it will hopefully help us maintain our form.
While we should of course enjoy this run, it’s important that both Emery and McGinn were keen to reiterate that it is still far too early in the season to get carried away, and so the message is one of staying humble and remaining focused on continuing to improve and develop.
“I’m feeling very, very good and very happy, we are connecting with our supporters and the positive energy transmits to us,” he added. “Today we needed it because we were tired after the game on Wednesday.
“We competed well and had a strong defensive structure. We were speaking about the necessity to keep a clean sheet against City and Arsenal, it is amazing to keep them. Today we were lower than we wanted but we needed to compete and we did.
“We are increasing mentality and believing how we can be stronger and increase our communication. We will have a lot of work to do to increase more.
“We want to be in the top eight teams but a lot of teams want to be there. At the beginning there were seven top teams but we will fight to be in there. While we are in we can be excited and motivated to get it.”