Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was pleased with his side’s performance as we picked up a 1-0 win over Southampton.
Jhon Duran’s first-half goal was enough to seal all three points, while Villa finally registered a Premier League clean sheet as we’ve shown improvement defensively.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Southampton: Decisive Duran, key ace shines
That makes it maximum points this week after our win over Brentford in midweek in a return to form, and hopefully we can continue to build on this now to put together a crucial run over the festive period.
Speaking to the media after the win, Emery gave his thoughts on our win and while he noted how we’re becoming more comfortable on the pitch again, he praised Duran for the individual quality in his decisive goal.
“We won and that’s positive but the difficulties we had were in our expectation,” he said, as per BBC Sport. “Over the 90 minutes we had chances to score more goals but sometimes they were dominating possession. Today we managed the game plan more or less to try and find the way to win.
“It’s important for the team. Today we had chances. We dominated sometimes both boxes. At the beginning for sure but the second half they didn’t get to our box,. We had chances to score the second goal which we didn’t do. Amazing goal from Jhon Duran, individual brilliant goal his ability to run in behind and he’s very clinical.
“The most important thing is how we are progressively getting comfortable on the field. We have to try to use substitutions because we have Champions League on Tuesday. Three matches in nine days. We have to be ready with the players we have available to try and enjoy the competition.”
On Leon Bailey injury, will he be available for Tuesday? “I don’t know. I think no.”
On league position: “Each step we have to try to get comfortable. We are fighting with Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, Brighton and we have to try to be there. We focus on the next match, Champions League and then the match against Forest.
“We have to thank our fans because it was difficult in the weather today. They started the game well, first 20-25 minutes they had chances. Progressively in the second half we stopped them better. We were close to a second goal and until the last moment we were defending, trying to keep possession and trying to score another goal. At the end we deserved to win and a clean sheet too.”
Villa now face another busy week as we travel to Germany to take on RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Tuesday night, before heading to Nottingham Forest next Saturday evening.
It’s part of our challenge this year to balance the two competitions, but ending an eight-game winless streak across all competitions with consecutive league victories over the past few days, will certainly give all concerned an important lift going into a difficult period.
As noted above, albeit it wasn’t the most convincing display and nor were we clinical enough in front of goal against the side bottom of the Premier League standings, but with a clean sheet, three points and the job done, it’s been a good week for Emery and the Villa squad.