Fixtures
- Everton Vs. Aston Villa – Wed, Jan 15th 2025, 19:30
Unai Emery admitted his delight after Aston Villa ended a run of five away Premier League defeats in a row with a hard-fought 1-0 win on the road at Everton.
Villa broke the deadlock through Ollie Watkins early in the second period, defending astutely to cling onto a precious three points.
Emery cited the importance and significance of victory away from home, also praising the travelling supporters for their weeknight backing in Merseyside.
He said: “Fantastic. Really, really happy. The supporters, they were here supporting us as well.
“We have broken the bad spell we had, the last matches we played away.
“Of course, today, in my mind, was a very important match to try to break it and get confidence. To win away always is difficult, here is difficult.
“But we competed very well, in the first half better than the second half, but we scored in the second half, and we defended very well after the goal.”
A first clean sheet of the season away from home was another welcome positive for the Villa boss, who was proud of his players’ defensive discipline throughout the second period.
“The clean sheet was very important, and was in our mind as well, a very strong objective today.
“We didn’t get [before], for different circumstances [an away clean sheet], but today I think, of course, through how we can manage the match, how we can offensively keep the ball possession as long as possible, we are starting to defend.
“But then, when we are not keeping the ball possession and the positioning offensively, we had to defend like we did.
“More or less, the second half after our goal, they were pushing a little bit, crosses, but we defended well, and we didn’t concede a lot [of chances].”
