Emery previews Tottenham tilt

Unai Emery met with the media on Friday afternoon to look ahead to Aston Villa’s Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

The Villans visit the capital on Saturday (ko 12.30pm), looking to secure back-to-back victories after Wednesday’s Carabao Cup triumph over Coventry City.

And Emery sat before the local and national media outlets at his side’s Bodymoor Heath training base to preview the encounter, with Spurs, Zion Suzuki and the upcoming extended international break among the topics of discussion.

Read the key lines from his pre-match press conference below…

On resilience...

“We are involving in different competitions, and we are performing differently for the demands, and for how we are in our process.

“We won two matches in Coventry and in Bruges. Really fantastic, we played fantastic, and in Premier League, we are (in a) lack of good results, a lack of enough performance collectively and even individually.

“But we are (in a) lack of the process to build the team as well, and hopefully tomorrow, we’ll watch the team improving. Improving, and competing in the level we need.

“We were speaking this week about the pre-season. Now, the pre-season for us (is) still being, because now we are joining after being injured, (Johan) Manzambi, we are even joining now, after being suspended, João (Gomes). Still not being available, (Leon) Goretzka, (Brian) Madjo, and in the pre-season, the only thing we did was to work with the players we (had) last year, more or less.

“And the development with some young players like, for example, George Hemmings and Madjo, but Madjo (is) still being injured after the pre-season. And now we are in this process. We are in the process, maybe, (it) was better to have one month ago, but it’s now.

“We must try to understand, progressively, how Aaron Wan-Bissaka is understanding everything we want tactically, how he’s now playing minutes, getting confidence and understanding us, Manzambi. (Matteo) Ruggeri as well, he played the first match on Tuesday, tomorrow again, how he’s going to respond and to understand everything, and to adapt the demands of the opponent, and we are in this process.

“Of course, we must compete and we must be ready to achieve enough performances individually and collectively to respond, and this is the challenge for tomorrow, but of course, I am being optimistic during the process, to set everything like we planned.

“But joining injured players, joining new players, playing together, should be the process we have to do.”

On challenges...

“We are in the process to add different players in our structure, in our idea, knowing as well, each other playing the first minutes played, Manzambi is being in this direction.

“Of course, it’s not now. When we joined players four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, I can remember when he was coming here, (Youri) Tielemans, the first year, he needed to be on the bench, he needed to play progressively, understanding which position was better for him, playing sometimes as a No.10, sometimes as a midfielder.

“Morgan Rogers, the first six months as well, he needed to understand everything. Of course, now we want our performance quick through the players we joined – Manzambi, Ruggeri, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, young players like (Ibrahim) Mbaye, of course, the young players like Hemmings and Madjo.

“Yes, we want it, but we must try to compete and be patient when the results, like until now, they are not being good enough in Premier League.”

On Spurs...

“Similar, like us, but their potential is a huge potential. They signed, spending, a lot of very good players, but they need as well, time to get compact everything and to achieve understanding their idea.

“Of course, (Roberto) De Zerbi, he’s a fantastic manager. He played fantastic football here and performed fantastic here in Brighton. He did a fantastic job before as well, in Shakhtar, and in Italy, and after Brighton, a fantastic job in Marseille.

“And now, when I can watch them, they are in this process, but of course, they are getting better, they compete fantastic, even losing against Liverpool.

“They are now progressively playing with the players they were late – Savinho, Pedro Porro, (Omar) Marmoush – but their idea and style, normally, De Zerbi’s style is getting better, and tomorrow is a huge challenge for us, how we are going to respond, how we are going to play as well in our structure, being compact and feeling confidence to play, and facing them as well in a difficult match.

“Of course, being very, very demanding defensively for us, trying to impose and dominate our moment with the ball as well during the game. This is the challenge. Of course, Tottenham, I expect them to be in the top four.”

On Suzuki...

“Some players, they need time to adapt to us and some players, they are doing quick.

“One of them doing quick is Suzuki, and understanding, more or less, how we want to build up, how we want to try to play with our goalkeeper in build-up – first phase, second phase – and how we can exploit his qualities with the players we have as well when he can set some balls in the opponent behind with his capacity to do it.

“This is the process we have with him, but really he is more or less giving us confidence, playing quick in our structure, with our idea, because he is performing really well.”

On international break...

“This break is crazy, because it’s three weeks. I really don’t like to be three weeks after tomorrow not playing, but we must accept it.

“It’s the time we are not going to have the players we want to work with them, to adapt quick with us. For example, Manzambi, he played the first two matches he played with us, and tomorrow is the third one, but then he’s going with the national team, and when he’s coming back again with us, we must again try to join him with us in our structure. And again, his mind, maybe, is going to be confused.

“But it’s like that, and we don’t want to use the international break matches as an excuse. We will work with the players they are going to be with us here, and the players with their national teams, of course, they are going with them.

“So tomorrow, the match is being very, very important for us because we are (in a) lack of a points, but of course, we will continue in our process and working and trying to focus each match, competition, each week, trying to work as best as possible and trying to adapt the players as well in our structure.”

Watch Emery's full pre-match press conference via VillaTV now, by clicking below...