Fixtures
- Aston Villa Vs. Tottenham Hotspur – Sun, Mar 10th 2024, 13:00
Unai Emery’s attention turned to Aston Villa’s Premier League encounter against Tottenham Hotspur at his pre-match press conference on Friday.
Hot on the heels of a 0-0 draw against Ajax on Thursday, the club’s head coach spoke about the prospect of facing Spurs at Villa Park.
Here’s what he had to say…
On team news…
“Tomorrow we will train for the last time before the game. We are going to wait and see [who will be available].
“We trained this morning, recovering with the players who played yesterday. Pau Torres and John McGinn will be available for Sunday.”
On entering a key stage of the season…
“When we started the season we were positive about our way in different competitions and we focused on two main competitions: Premier League and Europa Conference League.
“Of course, FA Cup and Carabao Cup are very important, but now we are focusing on both trying to be protagonists in those competitions. We are being very demanding, like yesterday we played a very demanding match in an exciting moment against Ajax.
“We did a big effort. When you want to get another higher level in our way as a club, as a team and as a coach, you have to try to understand the level and play a lot of matches.
“We have to try to get good performances with the players in our tactical structure. We are in a key moment for this season.”
On the importance of the match…
“We are on game 28 and we are used to playing being in the top five positions. We are going to face Tottenham, who are having a very good season as well.
“They are going to demand a lot from us, and it’s a key moment for them too. You have to play more matches until game 38, but for both teams we can play for three points.
“For me, it’s very important to try to show our level. We played before in the last two months at home against top teams like Newcastle United and Manchester United. We lost but we worked after those matches, analysing deeply to understand why and how we can react.
“Sunday is a new challenge against Tottenham. As a coach, it’s an amazing time to prepare, to be with the players, to take meetings and then be with our supporters in Villa Park.”
On Ange Postecoglou and Spurs…
“His impact has been fantastic. As a coach, you try to analyse and understand tactically how they are being successful in their idea and how they are improving during the season.
“They have changed some tactical issues: defensively going man-to-man a lot, holding the line high and how they are taking their positions on the pitch.
“This a big challenge on Sunday about how we can stop them. We want to play with personality and showing our capacity, individually and collectively.
“I think every player is very excited to face them.”
