**Unai Emery**expressed his thoughts on a 2-0 victory for **Aston Villa**against West Ham.
**John McGinn**converted from a well-worked free kick, and Ollie Watkins netted to double the lead from a counterattack. The Irons would have jumped out of the relegation zone with a victory, and they are a resurgent outfit under Nuno Espirito Santo, so their hosts had to perform to produce the points.
They are five points clear of 5thplaced Liverpool, and their bid for a place in the **Champions League**has strengthened.
“We are delighted with how the supporters in Villa Park helped us and transmitted their energy. We set out in this match to recover our confidence, our tactical structure, and our style and idea, trying to confirm it on the field, dominating the match and winning it.
“We did it. We won because we were setting our game plan strongly in the direction we planned before the match. The players responded fantastically. It was really brilliant how they got the challenge to play in this way and to play recovering confidence and feeling comfortable, collectively and individually.
“Defensively, as well, we kept a clean sheet. We won because the players responded fantastically
“Set pieces are very important and Austin (MacPhee) is doing fantastic work with the players, and the players are responding in their commitment to follow the game plan in set pieces like they did. It’s important to score through set pieces. It’s important for John McGinn to get numbers, and he did it.
“Another goal for Ollie Watkins is fantastic. He did a fantastic job. Today everything went very good.
“We even deserved more in the first half when we were dominating, not conceding chances for them. We were getting in their box a lot of times. We won, and we were always focusing on how we did it.”