Unai Emery said “it’s not an excuse” to have played in the Champions League if Aston Villa drop points to Southampton on Saturday afternoon. The team have been adapting to the trials and tribulations of elite European football, but they are all pulling in the right direction to their targets for the end of May. The manager made clear what goals matter most and is setting the standards high.
-
‘Premier League is the most important’
The Villans pushed PSG till the end, only going 3-1 behind in injury time. However, Emery expects his players should not lose sight of their goals for the bread and butter of Premier League football.
“My message is the same. We are enjoying now this period, we are enjoying playing in Champions League and we are as well in the semi-final in two weeks in London, but the Premier League is the most important. Our expectation, our objective during the season, is the same at the beginning. We are in game 32 tomorrow with still seven matches to play, and we have to focus on Premier League.”
Only a month ago, their target was in jeopardy: after a 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace, the team had dropped down to tenth position. But they bounced back with wins over Brentford, then fellow high flyers Brighton and Nottingham Forest to sit in seventh spot— only two points adrift of the top five.
“Before the match we played against Brentford, we were in risk in that moment not to have the opportunity like we are now, to try to face Premier League as well, with our ambition at the beginning of the season to repeat again to play in the top five positions, because the teams we are involved with in Europe, more or less, we are so, so close to get fifth place for Champions League.”
Emery's side are fighting on three fronts at the business end of the campaign as they go up against the Eagles at Wembley Stadium in the final four of the FA Cup in a fortnight. However, the manager pulled no punches with the press about where he is putting his priorities for these players.
“Of course, we are enjoying, and we are being very focused in Champions League, we are very focused on FA Cup, but we have to be prioritising Premier League.”
-
‘If you are not ready, you can lose’
Emery does not envisage having any new absentees after the display at the Parc des Princes. For this fixture, he can call on the services of Donyell Malen, who scored last weekend, and Andres Garcia: both men are not in the Champions League squad so missed out in midweek. He also hoped for the fitness of Leon Bailey to be good enough to feature with the team on Saturday after a hamstring issue.
“Leon Bailey is progressively getting together and today he’s working with the group. In case it is not for tomorrow, then hopefully next Tuesday he’ll be available. And the others are coming back after they are not in the list: Andres [Garcia] and [Donyell] Malen for tomorrow.”
Most would think that this team should get three points at Southampton. The Saints had endured an abysmal campaign, sitting rock bottom of the table with ten points— one fewer than the infamous Derby County with the lowest ever points tally in the Premier League. A 3-1 loss to Tottenham confirmed relegation and Ivan Juric got the sack three and a half months into his stint in the dugout.
But now the shackles could be off, and the hosts have still won twice this season. Emery knows that a shock might be possible if the side is not street smart, showing nothing but respect towards the Saints.
“I have one friend in football, always he is telling me you can play against every team – the winners, the losing teams. But even the losing teams, they are not going to lose every match. If you are not ready, you can lose against them.”
He is taking no chances with his goals this year. As the standards have shot up in his two and a half years as the manager, Emery explained he has always had high demands of himself and his players.
“I am here because I was successful. If I was not being successful in my career as a coach and demanding like I was, I am not here. They chose me, the owners, because I was as a coach more or less in my career, always getting my objectives through the clubs. Coming here is because they wanted to try to get the same: to be ambitious, work hard, increase our demands, to increase our objectives.”
-
‘We dream to repeat the Champions League’
The Spaniard spoke more about the challenges of competing in multiple competitions. Villa had played in the Conference League last year, so the concept of a packed schedule was not foreign to the squad. Yet, it seemed to affect them at the start of the season as they failed to win seven of eight Premier League games that followed a fixture in the league phase of the Champions League.
“I want players focusing like I am focusing each match in [the] Premier League. It’s not an excuse, of course, we can remember how we were playing sometimes in [the] middle of Champions League, and we weren’t working well. We weren’t achieving our objective.”
But now there are no excuses. The team beat Brentford between the two legs of their Round of 16 tie against Club Brugge, and Emery argued that the side should have learned their lessons from the past.
“But now, it’s not an excuse. If we are tomorrow not performing well, we are at risk. My message here and my message for the supporter is our objective, and my responsibility to set the objective clearly.”
Emery emphasised the importance of the recent winning streak. At the start of the weekend, only six points separated fourth placed Chelsea from ninth placed Brighton. As much as it did not take a lot to thrust the Villans up the standings, dropped points risk conceding ground to a number of adversaries.
“We have to win tomorrow. If we weren’t winning three matches before in Premier League, of course today we were speaking, maybe we were not with the opportunity to achieve again, options, opportunity to be in the European positions, because our objective is Europe.”
The ultimate goal would be to make the Champions League again for the second year in a row.
“Of course, we dream to repeat Champions League, and our highest ambition we are setting is to be in Champions League Last year, we weren’t contenders, and we got it. Now, we are there because we are performing in the last matches and the last demands we try to set collectively and individually. If we are using excuses because we don’t have some players (for example), then we are wrong.”
