Unai Emery has challenged his Aston Villa players to finally find some home comforts at Villa Park. Villa have shipped eight goals in their previous two matches in B6 following two successive 4-2 defeats to Leicester and Arsenal. It’s just one win in their last six at home which is in stark contrast to their results – and performances – on the road where they’ve taken 12 points from a possible 15 following last week’s impressive 2-0 triumph against Everton at Goodison Park. It’s Crystal Palace in front of another packed house at Villa Park on Saturday,
Unai Emery said: “It’s obvious that we are conceding a lot of goals at home. We are being competitive but not at home and, now, we are speaking about the challenge at home. We have to impose our idea and control the game with ball possession and good positioning. We have to try and not concede easy goals. We have to be consistent and have to be more compact than we have been. We conceded 11 goals in three matches and we lost the last two matches at home. Of course, it’s not the way I want to keep in our match against Crystal Palace.”
Emery, who never beat Palace in three attempts as Arsenal manager,
Unai Emery added: “We were speaking when I arrived here that, away, we have to be compact, consistent and defensively strong. We were concerned and, at the beginning, we needed to improve defensively. At home, we were thinking we are playing well, we are trying to be better than the opponent and we were winning more than we were losing. But, at the end, we are now not doing it. We are changing our minds on how we can face each match at home. It’s to be consistent. A clean sheet is the way to win. It’s very important to keep here the same spirit we had at Everton last week and, of course, we have to add our supporters and to be comfortable with them and to try and connect with them and to control our minds and our ideas and tactically decisions in our game plan. We want to win and win through a clean sheet.”
Given Villa’s indifferent form, there’s been a suggestion that players have struggled to adhere to Emery’s slow and patient game plan at Villa Park given the crowd’s desire for them to attack quickly. It’s led to players losing possession and, as we’ve seen in defeats to Leicester and Arsenal, conceding sloppy goals. On his players possibly being too keen to excite fans,
Unai Emery confessed: “Yes, of course! The spirit when we are winning is amazing. Playing at home is a little bit more special because we are playing with [our fans] and they are pushing us and wanting us to respond. They are wishing and looking forward to playing on Saturday. Like me, I am looking forward to showing our supporters our improvements. After our win at Everton, we are closer to the top ten teams and, if we win [against Palace], it’ll be one big step ahead. But, that is the challenge. We have been very excited before against Leicester and Arsenal but we lost. It’s key moments and the opportunities [to break into the top half] are coming. We have another opportunity against Palace to get into the top ten. This is the next step we are waiting to do before the end of the season. Away, we are feeling comfortable in different ways. We are playing stronger defensively trying to keep ball possession but trying to control the game. It’s not like at home where we’re trying to get to the opposition box quickly… We’re playing more [away] with passes, being good with our connections between goalkeeper and centre-backs, and our midfield and our strikers. At home, sometimes we are in a hurry to get to the box and we are losing the balls in the middle more than I want. That’s the control of the game I want to improve [against Palace]. That is our challenge. Then, through that, if we can control then we can win.”
