Emery hails Villa fans after Brighton triumph

Unai Emery paid tribute to the club’s supporters after seeing his Aston Villa side come from behind to emerge victorious in an enthralling 4-3 triumph at Brighton & Hove Albion.

The Seagulls opened up a two-goal lead inside the opening half-an-hour on the south coast courtesy of Jan Paul van Hecke and an unfortunate own goal from Pau Torres.

But Ollie Watkins bagged a first-half brace to level matters before Amadou Onana and substitute Donyell Malen fired Villa into a stunning two-goal lead, only for Van Hecke to strike again and continue the drama until the end at the Amex Stadium.

It was a sixth successive victory for the in-form Villans, who have now won 11 of their last 13 in all competitions.

The triumph also saw Unai Emery register the most Premier League wins of any Villa manager in history, this his 62nd victory in just 115 matches. 

Speaking to VillaTV post-match, the Spaniard said: “I’m very thankful for our supporters.

“They were here today, Wednesday, 7.30pm, travelling from Birmingham to be with us, to support us, to help us.

“They are very important because the players felt it, how they were pushing and helping us.

“It gives us a lot of motivation, as well to feel excited to try to share our wishes, their wishes, together, and their energy.

“How we reacted, how we didn’t give up after the first and second goals was fantastic.

“Maybe their first goal wasn’t a corner but we conceded one goal.

“When we were, more or less, a little bit shocked they scored the second goal and we needed to react, we needed to get our gameplan.

“And when we scored our first goal, we kept balance and we were trying to dominate, trying to adapt competing against them, and we scored the second goal.

“The first half was fantastic how we achieved this result.

“The second half, again, we were keeping our gameplan and, of course, it was a very tough match, a very difficult match.

“But the players responded fantastic.”