Unai Emery was a proud man after Aston Villa continued their superb home form with a sixth consecutive win at Villa Park.
The hosts saw off Tottenham Hotspur thanks to goals from Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz, with Harry Kane’s late penalty counting for nothing.
Head coach Emery was left to savour an important three points as Villa climbed back into the top seven in the Premier League.
“I’m very happy,” he said.
“I’m very proud of our supporters and the work we are doing here at home, being very competitive.
“Today we took one step ahead, getting better. The first half today we played a really good 45 minutes against a difficult team. We were trying to get into the top seven positions, like we are now, and fighting for a position in Europe.
“Today it was very important to win, but mostly it was important to play well, connect with our supporters and try to get positive energy together.”
Villa flew out of the blocks and went ahead when Ramsey netted after seven minutes.
And after Luiz curled home a free-kick, the home side defended valiantly to secure a win that moves them level on points with Spurs.
Emery said: “When you are winning 2-0, they can score and you can take some doubts, but we have to continue being in control of the game, controlling possession and to keep our game plan. We did it.
“The most important is to be consistent in our way. We are going to play next week against Liverpool away and against Brighton here.
“Hopefully we can keep our option to be with them and have an opportunity to be in Europe.”
