Fixtures
- Tottenham Hotspur Vs. Aston Villa – Sun, Nov 3rd 2024, 14:00
Unai Emery met with members of the local and national media on Friday at Bodymoor Heath, to preview his side’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur.
Aston Villa visit North London on Sunday (ko 2pm), with Emery discussing squad rotation, pressure and expectation, and Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs, ahead of the clash.
Here are the key lines from his pre-match press conference…
On squad rotation…
“With my experiences, when I am thinking for the next match, I am wrong.
“Now, my focus with these experiences I had before, is try to prepare for the next match, 100% thinking on it.
“Of course, sometimes, I am planning for some weeks that are coming, or even months, but I wanted to learn with my experiences.
“My thoughts always try to be focused for the next match.
“It’s not rotation, it’s not about which players are better to play against Tottenham.
“We have before [the match] one training session tomorrow, and something could happen. One injury or one player isn’t feeling good, because sometimes as well they can be sick.
“For me, the focus 100% is the match against Tottenham. I have to focus with the players.”
On losing 4-0 in last meeting with Tottenham…
“Of course, we are expecting the past with it, playing at home, playing away, playing at Tottenham.
“Every match we are playing, we are trying to identify our correction, our mistakes, our process.
“Now, we are analysing how we are now, and how they are with the players they have, and with the new season we are doing.”
On Spurs…
“Tottenham is playing really very well. They deserve more points than they have now.
“They played on Wednesday against Manchester City at home and they played with a lot of players who are going to play on Sunday.
“It is a very difficult match. The style they have is so, so strong. They have, individually, very good players.
“Of course, they signed [Dominic] Solanke and he is giving them a lot more ways to attack, to be stronger even than last year.
“They are favourites in front of us for the season, they are favourites in front of us for the match on Sunday, but we are competing and we are really being confident how we are doing our way.
“Last year, even losing against them, [we are] trying to use our stronger structure, we are trying to build here in everything, to face them on Sunday.
“Of course, it is a very motivating match, very exciting match for our supporters, for us, for me as a coach, the players, the club, how we are increasing our level and to try to be contenders with those teams like Tottenham, or [Manchester] City, or Chelsea or Newcastle, to compete with them.
“It is a really, really great match on Sunday. Difficult, but of course, for us, is a very emotional moment to face them to try and keep our position we have now.
“We have now, some advantage in the table, but after Sunday, it could be different.
“We have to keep our competitive way we are doing, but we have to adapt to them, and to compete against every team, the first thing is to adapt to them.
“They are going to impose a lot of moments in 90 minutes and we have to be ready to face them, to stop them, to dominate sometimes with our tactical ideas in set-pieces.
“Emotionally and mentally, we have to be strong. They are favourites, but we are there, and hopefully we can keep it for a long time.”
On expectation and pressure…
“I am feeling an increase in our standards, being demanding and being something we want.
“We are trying as well to get these demands, being comfortable and feeling in a good position when we are keeping this level in the table in the Premier League or Champions League.
“It’s really fantastic to try to feel something in our demands increasing, and getting it. It can never feel like something negative, like pressure damaging us.
“We want to feel something comfortable and really happy and keeping the same level in our demands, and more and more trying to get even better.”
