Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has expressed his concern over his team's inability to channel their frustration effectively after a seven-match winless streak.
He is urging his players to stay focused and avoid complacency as they prepare for future challenges. Chelsea will face Villa on Sunday (1:30pm kick-off), hoping to secure their first Premier League victory in six weeks since their last triumph against Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Emery has been instrumental in transforming the club since his arrival two years ago and insists on sticking to the processes that have brought about this change. "Sometimes we are not being demanding in the analysis," Emery said.
"It is human when we are being successful that we are thinking everything is going well. Maybe sometimes you are winning matches but making mistakes as well. You have to take care to correct and analyse it. Now I am trying to keep balance about how we are doing our way and getting performances individually and collectively, trying to feel every day in this balance, feeling more or less confident in the way we are doing.
"When we are being very, very demanding and trying to keep our high level of our consistency and sometimes not getting it, the frustration we have to manage."
Emery has candidly shared his feelings on Villa's current form, admitting managing his and the players' frustrations is key. He continued: "The last matches and the last result I try to manage myself: The balance, the frustration with the players. Now we are going to play on Sunday and I know we can win, we can draw or we can lose.
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"I am myself very demanding. In my career if I got my objective more or less it is because I was being demanding and trying to win a lot, trying to set the objective high. I did it more than less. But when you are not getting it your frustration is higher than normal.
"This is my concern with the team, with the players, starting myself because if we are not winning a match we have to win I am feeling frustrated. My demand is don't lose opportunities like we lost in some matches."
Furthermore, the Villa boss discussed how he deals with the pressure of a winless streak: "This is the frustration I have to control because the only way I can improve it is to work and keep the balance, trying to feel confidence with the players and transmit it to them."
Since taking over, the seven-match winless streak is the longest they've had. "Motivation is very important," he said.
"One of the most important things we are working on is being focused on each match, for 90 minutes. Some mistakes we make are because we lost a little bit our focus, individually and collectively. When we are facing teams who are better than us, more favourites than us, the only way to beat them is to keep consistency with a high level.
"In the Premier League you have to be more intelligent, you have to be more focused and more intense than the opponent. If not you don't have possibilities to beat them."
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