Unai Emery faced questions from the media on Thursday afternoon ahead of Aston Villa’s game against Newcastle United this weekend.
The head coach gave his thoughts on a number of topics as he previewed his team’s trip to Tyneside to begin the Premier League season.
Here’s what he had to say…
On Emi Buendía's injury…
“It’s the worst thing in football for the player, for the club, for us and his teammates.
“In the last action of training yesterday, he was injured and he’s now visiting the doctors. It is a ligament concern.
“Now, we want to win for him on Saturday in Newcastle, and we have to be passionate with him, to support him and help him to recover as soon as possible.”
On this season’s expectations…
“I’m very responsible about my work and I’m very focussed on the new season. I’m excited but trying to be in good balance.
“I want to increase and give better than last year but trying to keep regularity and the same consistency we had. As well, we’re trying to do things with different players, adding more players and being more competitive.
“Of course, we are playing one more competition in Europe, giving us more than 40, 45, 50 matches, hopefully, this year.”
On playing Newcastle United…
“We are going to play 38 matches [in the Premier League]. Every match is going to be very, very important, but of course we are going to win, we are going to draw and we are going to lose.
“Starting against Newcastle is a very good challenge for us. It’s difficult and I’m very excited about how we can face the match, analysing them, the match we played in pre-season and the last two matches they played in pre-season last week.
“They are feeling strong at home and their objective has now changed completely from two years before. They have to be in the top four.
“We want to be as close as we can to be a candidate to be in the top seven or top four. That is the challenge we are going to face.”
On his message to Villa’s supporters…
“Always we have to face the future and we have to get something different. When I arrived here, my message was clear and it’s still the same: I’m here to try and play in Europe with Aston Villa.
“We are doing it. Hopefully, after the match we are going to play against Hibernian or Luzern, we are doing it for more than those two matches. If we are in the group, we will try to share with our supporters a new way to play in Europe. It has been a long time that Aston Villa are not playing in Europe.
“The supporters have to be excited in the new way. We are going to play against different teams in different countries in Europe. For me, it’s very important and it’s another way to increase our level. We are trying to play for a trophy in Europe.
“Of course, the Premier League is the most important competition for us. It’s our first objective for everybody, try to improve on last year. It’s going to be very difficult, but we have to be very demanding.
“The two trophies we are going to face in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, always we have to be a candidate to fight for them. We are not looking at them like a second or third objective. It’s a trophy and we want to play for it.
“I want to be demanding with myself and with the club to be competitive.”
