Aston Villa secured a 2-1 win over Leicester City on Saturday afternoon, and Unai Emery has given his reaction to our victory.
It was an unconvincing performance from Villa as we struggled to create prior to Ross Barkley’s opener, but it was a fine strike from the midfielder to break the deadlock as he continues to make a key impact when involved.
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However, our lead lasted just minutes as once again we failed to keep a clean sheet, and as the visitors drew level after we struggled so badly to find a breakthrough, there was concern heading into the latter stages.
Emery’s changes were crucial though as Ian Maatsen made an instant impact off the bench to set up Leon Bailey for our winner, and so the Villa boss was pleased with the win, which continued our strong home form.
“I’m very happy,” Emery told VillaTV. “I’m glad because we needed to win these three points to start the second half of the season with the motivation we have to be in the top ten and the European positions.
“In Villa Park, we are trying to feel strong and comfortable with our supporters and trying to play with energy. We have to transmit that to our supporters and be positive. We are feeling strong here and our players are comfortable with our supporters here in Villa Park.
“The fortress is something we have to feel here and I think we are doing it.
“The supporters are helping us a lot. After their goal, we needed the supporters and they were supporting and helping us. Together, we did this victory. We are trying to start the second part of this season motivated with the points we are achieving. We have to be confident for the next matches and the next challenges.
“Now we’re away against Everton and Arsenal and we have to feel our power at home and away to get the challenge we have.”
While Emery is right to be pleased with the three points, he will surely be less content with the performance as a whole and how we struggled in the first half in particular to create and pose a threat to an organised Leicester side.
Further, our inability to kill the game off in the latter stages having conceded once again was also a glaring concern, and so we must certainly improve moving forward in order to get back to our best.
Nevertheless, it was an important way to start the new year with a win, and hopefully with the positives that we can take from it, we’ll build on this and put a crucial run of good form together to climb the Premier League standings in the coming weeks.