Unai Emery wants Aston Villa players to channel their Tottenham frustrations
Unai Emery has called on Villa to put the frustrations of Sunday’s defeat to Tottenham behind them by beating Ajax in the Europa Conference League.
Villa are back in action tomorrow night when they host the Dutch giants in the second leg of their last-16 tie with Emery keen for his players to quickly move on from arguably the poorest performance of the season.
The 4-0 defeat to Spurs means they no longer control their destiny in the race for a top-four Premier League finish, yet Emery is confident his team will respond in the same positive manner they have for most of the campaign. Villa have rebounded to all but one defeat by winning the next game and a victory over Ajax would put them one step closer to their goal of ending the club’s 28-year wait for a major trophy.
“We lost a very good opportunity (on Sunday) but we have to accept it and react quickly, like we did before,” said Emery. “We have to try and correct and analyse deeply the match we played and the matches we are going to face after today will be new opportunities to react.
“Now we are going to focus on the match on Thursday with our supporters at Villa Park. We have to be ready very quickly to react.”
Ajax are due to arrive in Birmingham this afternoon and will train at Villa Park this evening ahead of the second leg, which the teams enter level after last week’s 0-0 draw in Amsterdam.
“We are very motivated,” continued Emery. “It was a big achievement last year, to play in Europe in the Conference League.
“We are going to focus now 100 per cent the match on Thursday. We are going to try and react quickly.”
Emery has not yet ruled out Jacob Ramsey from featuring though no risks will be taken with the midfielder, who has been struggling with a foot injury sustained in the 3-2 win at Luton earlier this month.
Skipper John McGinn seems certain to start the match following his sending-off in the defeat to Spurs. The 29-year-old will be banned for Villa’s next three Premier League matches against West Ham, Wolves and Manchester City, with the visit of Brentford on April 6 the next game he will be available after tomorrow.
McGinn was yesterday named in the Scotland squad for friendly matches against the Netherlands and Northern Ireland later this month.
