Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was delighted with his side’s performance in our 2-0 win over West Ham United on Sunday.
Goals from John McGinn and Ollie Watkins sealed the three points, which in turn put us in a stronger position to secure Champions League qualification given results elsewhere went our way this weekend too.
Coupled with our win in midweek to advance in the Europa League though, it is surely a huge boost of confidence for the players as we break out of our slump and seemingly get back on track at a critical point in the campaign as we hope to put together another important winning run.
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Unsurprisingly, Emery was delighted with his team after they secured all three points on Sunday against the Hammers, and the Villa boss praised them as this could potentially be a vital result come the end of the campaign.
Watkins gained special praise with Emery continuing to show faith in him and back him through his struggles for goals in recent months, and so he was naturally very pleased for the Villa talisman as he got back on the scoresheet and made our win safe in the second half.
“It is very difficult to win matches in the Premier League,” he said, as per BBC Sport. “Today I am delighted with how the players responded. We set them a challenge not only to win but to feel confidence in our structure. In the first half it was maybe the best half we have played here this year.
“We stopped them and we did everything like we planned. We needed at home to recover our confidence and energy, to be consistent over 90 minutes and to win. We are very motivated for the rest of the season for the Europa League and to be in the top positions in the league.
“We are working a lot on set pieces and the players responded fantastic.The objective after the break is to keep doing what we are doing now.”
On Ollie Watkins: “He is a fighter and today he played a fantastic game. He deserved to score. He was fighting with the centre back and was close to scoring and he was pushing and helping us be in the attacking third. Holding up passes offensively and then he had to get in the opponents box to score the sort of goal he got.
“Now he must be focused with us to recover his confidence and numbers. Getting his numbers again he will be close to being back with the national team.
“We are delighted with how we played and how the players responded to the challenge we set. We have been consistent but the last month we have been struggling to get points and not really playing like we have been during the season. Today we played a fantastic game. We needed to recover our good form playing in our style.
“The players now are very proficient. They know they must rest after each match, eat good food and then be ready to play the next game. Today they responded fantastic.
“We are very motivated in the Premier League to be in the top five positions and in the Europa League we are excited to get something.”