Dean Smith spoke to the media via a virtual press conference to preview Aston Villa’s home clash against Arsenal.
The club’s head coach discussed Wednesday's defeat to West Ham United, his message to the players afterwards, November's impressive 3-0 victory against the Gunners, what he expects from Saturday's encounter at Villa Park (ko 12.30pm) as well as the latest team news.
Here’s what he had to say…
On the defeat to West Ham…
“After the Burnley game, I only showed (the players) the set-piece goal, which I thought was really poor defending from ourselves.
“After the West Ham game, our debrief was all three goals, as they were really poor defensively.
“I haven’t had cause to do that because we’ve set really high standards this season and I thought we dropped off it.
“It was the first time I thought we looked mentally tired more than anything, certainly there’s nothing in the numbers to suggest fatigue in any way, but it was the fifth game in 14 days, we’ve got our sixth game on Saturday in 18 days.
“The lads have to make sure they’re ready for each game because it’s a tough league and can be punishing if you’re not right.”
On his message to the players afterwards…
“The message was they’ve dropped below their standards.
“We’ve had some very high standards this season already and we keep speaking to the players, if we want to be a top team then we have to keep playing to those standards.
“For me, there were too many six out of 10s on Wednesday night and if you drop to that level then you’re going to get beat. We found that out.
“The lads understand that as well and they know what they have to do to put it right.”
On November’s 3-0 win over Arsenal…
“It was a follow-up (win) after beating Liverpool.
“Arsenal are one of the big clubs in the league, had success, won the FA Cup last year, to go there and put in a performance as we did and get the result we did was excellent.
“It was on the back of a defeat against Southampton, so a really good performance, but Arsenal are a changed team now.
“They’ve had an upturn in form now and been climbing the league, it will be more of an evenly-matched game on Saturday.”
On what he expects facing Arsenal…
“I think they’ll respect us, that’s for sure, because of the last couple of games we’ve played them.
“Project Restart we played them in the penultimate game and beat them 1-0, but it was a backs-to-the-wall 1-0. We had to defend doggedly and I don’t think they had an attempt on our goal all game.
“A different game when we went there, we took the lead early, John McGinn’s had one disallowed after 30-40 seconds, I think.
“But they’ve had chances as well, (Alexandre) Lacazette put a header over early, it wasn’t one-way traffic in that game. But second half I thought we were outstanding.
“You look at the squad Arsenal have got, they’ve got some of their young players coming into the team, (Emile) Smith Rowe and (Bukayo) Saka, just two to mention who have played with fluidity and freedom and so we certainly have to be mindful of that.”
On team news…
“Wesley’s not close yet, he’s been involved in non-contact training, still not in contact training yet.
“Kortney Hause is obviously still out, he’s the only one.”