Unai Emery met the media at his pre-match press conference at Bodymoor Heath on Friday afternoon.
The Aston Villa head coach faced questions on a number of topics ahead of his side’s trip to Manchester City on Sunday.
Here’s what he had to say…
On team news…
“Bertrand Traoré is starting to train with the team normally, but it’s the first day [today].
“Diego Carlos is doing his work individually but I think next week he will start with us, which is very good news.
“For Sunday, we train for the last time tomorrow and hopefully everyone else is going to be ok to play.”
On Ollie Watkins…
“Ollie Watkins, his best characteristic as a striker is to be close to scoring, to be close to assisting and to be close to fighting with the defence, as he is doing.
“He will need his teammates to help him achieve his objectives. At the beginning, each match, for me and for them, is an exam on how we can respond.
“At the moment, he is doing well but I want to be more demanding with him because I think he can play better than he is doing.
“When he is scoring and he is helping the team to win, we can be happy. Everyone can do more, and he is one of them.”
On Villa’s away form…
“It’s very strange because at the beginning it was more difficult to play away and the challenge was to play away. Now, we are taking points away [from home] and we are being very, very competitive away.
“At home, we are not being as competitive as we have to be. Each match for us is part of our process of how we want to improve and win as a team.
“I try in each match to take good decisions around the tactical way and being firm with playing in our idea.
“I want to play the same matches in the same competitive way at home and away. We are going to focus on this Sunday’s match, trying to get the same performance away as we did before.”
On Manchester City…
“It’s a very difficult match. Manchester City are building a team to win the Champions League and they are getting close to doing it.
“In the Premier League they have had amazing results over the last few years. Each year it’s Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, and this year it’s Arsenal, to be close to them.
“I’ve played against Manchester City here and in the Champions League, it’s a very difficult match. Maybe it’s going to be more difficult now with the issues they are having.
“I think they’re going to be together and they are going to try and respond on the pitch against us.”
