Dean Smith joined the media this morning to look ahead to Aston Villa’s upcoming Premier League fixture with Arsenal.
Villa will be aiming to get back to winning ways when they travel to the Emirates Stadium to face Mikel Arteta’s side on Sunday night.
This is what the boss had to say ahead of the game…
Team News…
“Bertrand [Traore] came off and he’ll be struggling for Sunday, he won’t make it.
“He’ll definitely be back after the international break.
“Tom [Heaton] is in full training; he needs a few games.
“He’s got a chance [of playing for the U23s against Burnley], we’re waiting to see if that will go ahead and if it does, I expect him to play.”
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On Wesley: “He’s well-liked in the dressing room.
“He had a horrific injury and he’s battling hard to come back from that.”
On the reaction to Southampton…
“There was a good reaction in the game, they showed an awful lot of character and played some really good football in the second half, but we can’t give teams four-goal leads.
“It was never a 4-0 game, it wasn’t a bad performance, but we gave free-kicks away in silly areas.
“We have analysed the game and it’s not a lack of defensive action that led to the goals.
“We still feel that we’ve had a good start, the last two results have been disappointing.
“The players are still confident, that’s for sure, they want to put it right.
“We believe that we have a really good squad and players that can play the way that we want to play.”
On his internationals…
“I’m really pleased for our players that get called up.
“I spoke a couple of years ago and I said that he [Jack Grealish] would be judged on goals and assists, and he’s improving in those aspects.
“He’s got four goals and four assists already, so he’s doing something right.
“He’s working extremely hard, he stays humble and he needs to keep doing that.
“Our trust goes out to the international managers to manage our players appropriately.”
On Arsenal…
“He took over and they went and won the FA Cup.
“They have started with good performances, so he’s done a fantastic job.
“It was a big win for us [last season] that helped us to retain our Premier League status, and we played them in pre-season, so we know a lot about them.
“It will be a really tough game, they had a really good result against Manchester United last week and Molde last night.”