Unai Emery spoke to media at Bodymoor Heath on Friday afternoon to preview Aston Villa’s Premier League trip to Chelsea.
The Spaniard began by lifting the lid on his side’s preparations for the game in west London given the quick turnaround from Thursday’s Europa Conference League game away to Legia Warszawa.
He said: “We worked today with the players who didn’t play in the starting XI yesterday while the other players recover.
“After we came back late yesterday, today was very important to rest and to work a little bit. We are going to wait for tomorrow to prepare the match on Sunday and see which players are 100% ready to play.”
Villa’s head coach rotated his team in Poland in light of their busy schedule, making five changes from the starting XI that beat Crystal Palace last weekend.
Emery says he must be able to utilise and count upon every player in his squad as Villa look to compete on four fronts this term.
“I am using my experiences in Europe and playing a lot of matches during the week. We are building a team,” he said.
“We didn’t want to lose but it was a possibility. We need to build, to try to get performances from players who joined us in the last moment, like Clement Lenglet, and players who are not playing regularly but who will help us.
“They have to play. We do not only need 11, 12, 15 players, we will need 20, 22, 25 players.
“Some injuries are coming like with important injuries to Tyrone Mings and Emiliano Buendia, and then small injuries like Diego Carlos.
“We made yesterday some mistakes, unusual tactical mistakes, but I spoke to the players and said it was a small accident. We will analyse and react to improve the mistakes we did.
“The players are very excited about the Conference League and we’re going to play another five matches. Everything that happened yesterday was to learn about how to build a team in the way we want.”
Emery finished with a word on Chelsea, who he expects to provide tough opposition on Sunday.
He said: “They’re a very good team with a very good coach. Previously, they were contenders to be in the top seven teams in the Premier League.
“It’s a tough match.”
