Unai Emery
Unai, you must be really pleased? It’s six wins in seven games…
Good evening. Yes, very happy, above all for our fans because we’re winning at home. Clean sheet. We scored two goals in each of the last four matches now. We’re going up in the table but we have to take balance as well with the difficulty we have in front. Today, the match was the same as we were thinking, very difficult. We share our moments with our supporters here, winning, playing a competitive match. We improved on some things and took more information to continue on our way to build as a team and in our ideas.
You had to work for it at times, does that make it all the more pleasing for you?
Yes, of course. It’s about the result first but we want to create a way how we can feel better and be competitive and closer to winning each match. Today was a match to be passionate, to defend well and to try and impose our idea on the pitch. Progressively we did better as the match went on. We win 2-0 and it was amazing, the atmosphere, that moment when Watkins scored that second goal.
You spoke about it on Tuesday but did you ever expect to make this kind of progress this season given you’re now sixth in the division?
We are winning. We are adding a new target in our way. We started trying to escape from the bottom. We did it. We tried to be in the top 10 and now we are there but another target we have is to go to Europe. But to go to Europe we have to face other teams who are playing very well. For example, we are now sixth but it’s not real because Brighton have two matches less than us, Liverpool as well and we have to wait for their results and then of course we are going to think to be ambitious but realistic as well. Now, we can add a new target for the next match; it’s to win and we can be with the possibilities to get the European position.
I know you’ve said it’s going to be tough but you can’t be going into these last eight games with much more confidence… It’s incredible.
Yes, yes. The last six or seven matches we were speaking because before we lost three matches and conceded 11 goals. Our response after that to improve was really good from the players. The confidence now comes when you are winning and when you are being comfortable on the pitch; sometimes defensively like against Chelsea or keeping the ball like against Leicester. Today, it was very difficult to progress. I spoke to the players to be passionate and to try to keep ball possession longer than we do usually because [Forest] were waiting in the middle trying to take our mistakes and take the transition. We didn’t concede it and defensively today was one thing I was very happy with.
Ollie Watkins might get the headlines again after scoring but how happy have you been with Tyrone and Ezri? How good are they as a pair?
Yes, we are very happy for Ollie and Emiliano Martinez because he keeps clean sheet. But thinking about the goalkeeper and striker, we have other players in the middle. They are very, very important as well.
