Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has warned of the difficulties of a Premier League clash with high-flying Bournemouth this Sunday.
The Villa Park gaffer was speaking after watching a heavily rotated side beat Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League with a professional performance in a relatively comfortable 2-0 win.
However, Emery is clearly expecting a bigger challenge this weekend, describing the process of preparing for the match and facing the Cherries as 'very, very demanding'.
Emery's Post-Match Comments
Speaking to Aston Villa's media team after the game on Thursday night, Emery expressed his delight at claiming another three points in the League Phase of the Europa League, but quickly turned his attention to the challenges ahead.
He said: "I’m very happy because we have three more points in the table. After we lost in Go Ahead Eagles in the last match we played in Europe, we were a little bit frustrated and we were understanding the difficulties we will face in this competition.
"I think we can feel comfortable and we can feel in good balance, and now Sunday. Sunday is the next challenge for how we are finishing this break in the table and with the objective for the season how we can close day 11 on Sunday.
“After this victory we’re going to focus the next match against Bournemouth – it will be very, very demanding. We’re resting, working and preparing the match on Sunday.”
Emery's Perfect Summary in Six Words
Antoine Semenyo
"It will be very, very demanding" is the perfect way to describe Bournemouth's coming trip to Birmingham. Simply in terms of preparation, the Europa League is often grueling for the Premier League sides involved in the competition. Thursday-Sunday is a difficult schedule and as is the case this season, the Europa League is traditionally filled with teams without the same resources as the Premier League's top clubs. They have less ability to rotate effectively, although Emery did make five changes against Maccabi Tel Aviv and managed to rest some key players, including captain John McGinn.
The other issue is that Bournemouth are having a brilliant season. They are fifth in the table and have scored the fifth-most goals of any team in the division. Antoine Semenyo is arguably the most in-form player in the league, and even youngster Junior Kroupe has emerged as a fearsome goal threat with four goals in his last four appearances.
It won't be an easy afternoon for a Villa side who have turned around a poor start to the season but only netted nine times in 10 Premier League games - only Nottingham Forest and Wolves have scored fewer. Momentum has built in recent weeks with four wins in five, the only blip being a 2-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield.
Beating Bournemouth would be a huge indicator of Villa getting their season back on track, but a defeat would paint a more worrying picture going into the international break.