Unai Emery hails "ambitious" Aston Villa after comeback win at West Ham
Unai Emery hailed the response of his “ambitious” Aston Villa side after they came from behind twice to beat West Ham 3-2 and kept themselves in the Premier League title race.
Morgan Rogers scored twice – including a stunning long-distance winner – to ensure Villa remain three points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal.
“Our start was poor, two times we were behind but how they responded and how we achieved those three points is how we are as a team,” said Villa boss Emery.
“Being ambitious, responsible, being organised in our structure. I’m so happy how we responded.”
Villa trailed to Mateus Fernandes’ goal after just 29 seconds and later a poacher’s strike from Jarrod Bowen.
But a Konstantinos Mavropanos own-goal cancelled out the opener and Rogers hauled Villa level at 2-2, before the England midfielder capped a sparkling performance with a superb dipping strike.
“For me, the most important thing is how he is working, tactically, offensively and defensively and now he is scoring goals,” added Emery.
“He is always doing his work with huge commitment. He is growing up so quick and performing better because physically, he is strong and his mentality is huge.”
Villa have now won 10 of their last 11 Premier League matches, having been winless in their first five, but Rogers is not thinking about the title yet.
“We’re not looking at that at all,” the 23-year-old told the BBC.
“People were talking about relegation before so we are not talking about that.
“It is about being as consistent as possible. At the moment we are in a great run so let’s see where that takes us.
”West Ham led at Bournemouth and Brighton recently, as well as against Villa, but have taken just two points from those three matches and remain in the relegation zone."
Rogers has netted five goals and set-up five more in 23 appearances in all competitions for Villa this season.
"We were making it difficult for ourselves away from home, conceding and going down," he added in an interview with Sky Sports.
"But the feeling we have at the moment. The resilience, the fight, the battle. We know we can get back into any game.
"We've got the quality to win it. Another fight today, another good team we were playing against. It was so difficult but to get the three points is massive. A big win."
