Unai Emery’s pre-match press conference took place at Bodymoor Heath on Friday afternoon.
Aston Villa’s head coach fielded questions from local and national media as he looked ahead to Saturday’s Premier League game against Crystal Palace.
Here’s what he had to say…
On preparations for Palace…
“We won two matches, we lost two matches and we are now in the balance. We can be better, we can be worse; and tomorrow is the key in this moment.
“If we are winning tomorrow, we can be happy. We have to prepare and we have to play tomorrow thinking that it’s going to be very difficult because every match in the Premier League is very difficult.
“We have to prepare, we have to be ready, we have to be very demanding in 90 minutes, we have to use our starting XI and the players in the bench.
“Even in this break I was very aware about the difficulties of tomorrow and the important match we are going to face. That is the idea that I told the players this morning.”
On the team’s strong home form…
“When you are winning, the most important thing is to be competitive again to win again because it’s the most difficult way after the matches we’ve won in Villa Park.
“Villa Park is very important because we have to feel strong there, we have to connect with our supporters every match and we have to be very demanding each match to try and get the best of us.
“Tomorrow against Crystal Palace is the same. Of course we are being comfortable, but the challenge tomorrow is to feel comfortable and strong like the last matches we’ve played at home.
“That is the challenge tomorrow. The players are in the same way because they have been speaking a lot about how we can improve, how we can progress. For me, Villa Park, it’s always special to play there.”
On areas for improvement…
“I want to score a lot of goals, I want to be strong defensively like we were last year. Tomorrow, the challenge is to try and score, try to close our goalkeeper, try to impose our idea.
“We are trying to overcome some situations we’ve had with some injured players; with some circumstances we’ve had.
“We have to be responsible, we have to be mature and we have to be very professional, taking each situation being positive and reacting very quick to be competitive and try to do our best.”
On facing Roy Hodgson…
“I really respect him a lot, Hodgson, and Crystal Palace. They are very competitive, a very organised team.
“I think the coach has not only experience but the capacity to show an organised team. They are a team that’s very difficult to win against because they are very competitive away and at home.
“My expectation is that tomorrow will be a difficult match, but I want to be positive. I want to try to be strong with our supporters.”
