Unai Emery confident of Aston Villa turnaround despite season's 'strange' start
Unai Emery admits Villa’s poor start to the season has been a “little bit strange” but is confident his team are on the right track.
Villa head to Sunderland on Sunday still seeking their first goal of the Premier League campaign, having taken just two points from their opening four matches.
It is a run which many would regard as the club’s toughest since Emery took charge nearly three years ago but speaking on Friday, the Spaniard attempted to put a positive spin on events, insisting he has seen improvement in his team’s last two performances, while pointing out there is still much for the club to look forward to.
Villa, who had not played in Europe for more than a decade prior to Emery’s arrival, begin their Europa League campaign at home to Bologna next week, having reached the quarter-finals of last season’s Champions League.
Asked if the slow start had felt strange, considering the success which had come before, the boss replied: “A little bit, but we keep going. Because I had a lot of [difficult] moments, two and a half years ago we lost three home matches in a row, 4-2 against Leicester, Arsenal and 3-1 against Manchester City and in that moment I was focused on the reaction.
“Today is the same. We started the league, four matches, with the circumstances we had, but now we are progressively getting better.
“The last two matches, I felt it, our progress, our improvement. It was not enough but we are working really hard and focusing on how we have to.”
Villa drew 0-0 at Everton last weekend in their first match after the international break, with Harvey Elliott then finally scoring their first goal of the season in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie at Brentford, Emery’s men eventually exiting the competition on penalties after the match had finished 1-1.
Elliott was one of three deadline day signings, along with Jadon Sancho and Victor Lindelof, at the end of a transfer window in which restrictions over Villa’s spending due to Uefa’s financial rules appeared to cast something of a shadow over the club.
Emery does not believe that can be used as an excuse, explaining: “We had circumstances that didn't help us, mostly in August. But now we are in September, we are progressing.
“We have a lot of positive things in front of us and I’m excited to keep and recover our consistency in the Premier League, this is the first objective we have, which I set.
“And then it is another competition, the Europa League is something so, so special for us.”
Boubacar Kamara is pushing to start after making his return off the bench in the midweek cup defeat, while Lindelof could also be back available having missed several days training through injury.
Amadou Onana, Youri Tielemans, Ross Barkley and Andres Garcia remain out.
