Aston Villa boss Unai Emery made his stance clear about the club's Champions League-chasing rivals
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery(Image: Michael Zemanek/Shutterstock)
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Unai Emery emphatically told reporters that he is not concerned about Manchester United, Chelsea, or Liverpool’s results following Aston Villa’s key victory against Brighton.
Villa’s eight-point gap to sixth-placed Liverpool remains, as both teams won 1-0 on Wednesday night. However, Emery’s side are now six points clear of Chelsea in fifth and five points better off than United.
Chelsea squandered a two-goal lead at home against Leeds United, while United managed a draw at West Ham on Tuesday.
Villa, meanwhile, had to work hard for their win over Brighton, which was seen as a crucial opportunity to return to winning ways and pull slightly clear of the chasing pack.
“No way, no way,” Emery replied, shaking his head when asked if the win was more important because of the points Chelsea and United dropped.
“I don’t want to speak about other teams. We focus on ourselves, in our way, our points, and how we build the team.
“We are trying to focus on each match. Other teams will win and lose. If we lose, then we are out, but if we win, then we keep a good way.
“We focus on each competition and each match. After 10 days, we play Leeds United, and now we focus on the FA Cup.”
He added: “We needed to win. How? Sometimes playing better or worse. We needed to recover confidence today. We are adding players too.
“The three points are very, very important. It was an equal match in the first half, and in the second we performed worse, but it was equal.
“The set-pieces are another way we are using and exploiting. A draw would be fair, but we lost two matches here before and needed to get energy with the supporters.”
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