After witnessing a superb performance from his Aston Villa team against Arsenal, Unai Emery was a proud man.
Goals from Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins earned a deserved 2-0 success in north London as the visitors took down one of the Premier League’s title contenders.
Head coach Emery was delighted with his side’s display against the Gunners.
“I’m very proud of our work, the players and the supporters,” he said.
“They were here with us, pushing us, supporting us, trying to play with us. Matches like today, when we play at this level to get these performances, we feel we can keep increasing our level to get those positions in the top seven teams.
“These three points are the same like we played for last week against Brentford and we will play for against Bournemouth next week, but to get here three points is giving us confidence and power to prepare the next matches being motivated and excited to get our objective in Europe and the Premier League.”
An even first half saw chances for both teams to take the lead, with Watkins striking a post for Villa before they headed back down the tunnel at 0-0.
The away side took control from the restart and got their reward for a dominant second half when they scored twice in the space of three minutes.
Emery said: “Our plan was to be consistent for 90 minutes, try to control the game from minute one to minute 90.
“We needed to stop them when they were playing with their skill and positioning at home here with the fans. We needed very high commitment from everybody to get our best performances defensively, helping a lot in individual duals.
“We didn’t dominate with ball possession in the first half a lot, but we avoided their press and were adding confidence. In the second half, we were getting better, imposing ourselves.
“We have very good players, we have our positioning and our idea and style, and when we are imposing our game we can face teams like Arsenal.
“It’s really fantastic. It was very difficult but we did it and we keep going, move on and be positive.”
