After Aston Villa’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United at Villa Park, manager Unai Emery addressed the media in a post-match press conference. This result placed Villa in fifth position with 14 points as the team headed into the October international break. Here is the entirety of what Unai Emery said during the press conference:
Unai Emery said “I think the result for both teams is fair. Maybe the first half they controlled the match better. We didn’t concede many chances, but they controlled it better than we did. The second half we corrected things and pushed in different ways how we could play better. They hit the crossbar, but we were better in positioning and we created a few chances to score. The most important chance we created to score was the last one with Jaden. It was a tight match, but we have to accept it and the draw is fair for both teams. We are in the top five and in Europe we are challenging very well in the first two matches we played. It is a positive the way we are doing. I am satisfied but also demanding for the next month. I don’t know exactly. I think it is hamstring, but I don’t know if it’s a big or small injury. Hopefully it is a small injury. We have to rest now and recover some players like Ramsey, Onana and McGinn. Buendia is getting fitter and better. We will need them.”
Addressing the team’s inability to find an extra gear,
Unai Emery said “Playing in Europe and then playing against Manchester United, there is a tough demand on us. How we played against them last year, losing to them at home, we planned to forget the match on Wednesday and play with all our energy today. Today, maybe some players needed to be refreshed, but we don’t have those players because they are injured like Ramsey and McGinn. We are taking lots of information from Philogene and Barkley, they played fantastic. It is important they get minutes on the field. We will need players to be ready to play. We are not having a lot of important injuries, just small injuries. It is normal and some players have hamstring or small injuries. But for me it is not really relevant. The idea is to try and reduce the risk and have players to play instead of them. Players with small injuries, they should be available again like Onana and Ramsey.”
On keeping two clean sheets in a row,
Unai Emery said “Yes. It is important as well because of the teams we played, Manchester United and Bayern Munich. It is also important to keep the balance and increase our level. This is the challenge we have and we need to be consistent with the objective we are adding. They are more demanding than last year.”
Regarding Philogene’s performance,
Unai Emery said “Really good. He is doing that. I am very happy. He can play on the left and right. Today we had two players out. Today after 60 minutes, he replaced him with Jaden on the right side.”
When questioned about Rashford potentially not receiving another yellow card,
Unai Emery said “I didn’t watch this action.”
