Every word Unai Emery said about Everton victory, 'exciting' Malen, Watkins and 'fantastic' Kamara
Unai Emery sat down with the media after Aston Villa's 1-0 win over Everton at Goodison Park on Wednesday night.
Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the game in the 51st minute as Villa claimed their first away league win since October. Here is every word Emery said in his post-match press conference...
What are your thoughts on your team’s performance?
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"It was very important today to win. We have broken our bad spell in the league away from home. We want to be more consistent in the table. We are trying to be all the season, more or less, to have the possibility to get the target for the league and this result was very important.
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"We played the first half better than the second half. We created two very good chances we didn’t score. We played the second half controlling less than the first half, but we scored one goal.
"We dominated defensively their attack and we competed very well in the second half defensively. We deserved to win, which is very good for our confidence."
Are there signs that Ollie Watkins is getting back to his best?
"Ollie always responds on the field, sometimes not with goals but always with his work. Today he did it and he had a good chance in the first half but he kept going. He then scored a fantastic goal."
That was your first clean sheet in an away league game this season. This is something to build on…
"We are happy and the clean sheet is very important, but the most important thing is to win. We are conceding a lot of goals. More than normal. I don’t know exactly why.
"Sometimes we make mistakes or because the opponent is better than us. Sometimes we are weak defensively. Today we showed that we are stronger than normal and in the last matches we played away. Through this clean sheet, it is the first objective."
Did Boubacar Kamara’s performance show how important he is for you?
"Fantastic match. Fantastic. He is getting progressively better after a long time injured. His work and his capacity is increasing. It is fantastic. He showed that again today. For us he is a very important player."
Ollie Watkins had a nice moment with the away fans after full-time - that must be great for his confidence?
"The most important always with the players is the commitment they have to work on what we need on the field. The strikers have to score and they have to try to be offensively close to our attack to score goals or get assists.
"We’re happy because his work is fantastic to be able to always come back, to fight for the second action from another player. It is good because we won and it is good as well because he scored. It is good as well because after this clean sheet we have to analyse again how we can get stronger."
Will Donyell Malen be in contention to play on Saturday?
"If everything goes well, tomorrow [Thursday] he joins us [training]. We are excited as well how he can help us. He is coming in, changing with Jaden Philogene. Hopefully we can get his best."
How hard is it to juggle the different competitions you're competing in?
"We have started the year really fantastic, winning two matches at home against West Ham and Leicester. To get confidence away is very important. We really focused on this match to recover our consistency. Today we added a little bit more confidence for the players and the team. Also, how we can manage this Premier League always being close to the top eight teams."
