Unai Emery expressed his respect for **Bournemouth**as the next opposition for Aston Villa.
The Cherries crashed to a 3-1 loss against Man City last weekend, but they still sit in fifth place in the Premier League and are one of the most impressive outfits in the division under Andoni Iraola.
Emery’s men are coming off the back of a 2-0 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League. Spirits are high in the camp, but they will need whatever energy they can muster against an opponent that does not stop running and have the quality in the final third to spoil the mood in the Midlands.
“They are performing fantastic. Really fantastic. The work he (Iraola) is doing, all the workers or the professionals there with (the) head coach, is really fantastic.
“He is always even selling some players, he’s building a very competitive team, competing for the top position, European position, and this year, they have 18 points, three more than us. And for us, in the table, the day 11 has been very important, how we can test, how we can finish on Sunday, in the table, trying to get those 3 points.
“Tactically, they are very good in everything. They are defending aggressive, they are defending, getting duels, they are attacking in transition, but they are attacking well, getting good combination with the players and being very offensive with all the players they have. They are very good in set-pieces. Offensively, they are very, very creative, and defensively as well, they have the power.
“I think is the challenge is really a difficult challenge, but I like to play much like that. I like to get our challenges against teams they are performing very well and how we are building our needs to show and to have challenges like we are going to have on Sunday.”
“I’m happy (with) how we are reacting. How we are – the players, the team, the club, the supporters – after our poor start, everybody is trying to support, to help, to do one step forward, individually and collectively, to get something more.
“And to get something more through the points, through in Europe to be in the table, in the position we are feeling comfortable, to try to get in our first eight matches the top eight.
“And this response of the players makes me happy and makes me confident. Now, we are trying to keep this consistency, each match we are playing. Yesterday, we did it. We achieved it again – 90 minutes consistent, respecting the opponent, we got our good performance to achieve the three points.
*“And on Sunday is again, our challenge in the Premier League after we lost in Liverpool. We were before the match against Liverpool, very, very confident how we were performing in the last two matches against Tottenham and against Man City. This Sunday is very important, very important.*
“They are playing and performing fantastic, and on Sunday, we must show, we should show, our capacity to respond as well, tactically and individually against them.
*“Of course, playing in Villa Park,, hopefully we can create a positive energy and transmit our supporters our capacity to play excited, motivated, and being clinical in everything to beat them.”*