After defeating Arsenal 1-0 at Villa Park, Aston Villa has won 15 consecutive Premier League home games across the season and is currently ranked third in the standings, only 2 points behind leader Liverpool. Head coach Unai Emery and goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez are both confident that Villa are in contention for the title.
After defeating Manchester City at home three days ago, Emery encouraged the players by saying, “If we can beat Arsenal again, we will enter the title race.” Now they have done it. Emery said: “We are in (the title race). I can talk more about it. We can talk about it (title) with pleasure, excitement and motivation!”
Goalkeeper Martinez also said confidently: “Yes, yes! Of course (we are in the title race). When you beat Manchester City and Arsenal in a week, when you play a game like we controlled Manchester City , and I’ve never seen Manchester City be held in a game like that, and then after 85 uncomfortable minutes against Arsenal and then win again… I believe in this issue, man!”
Asked how different the wins against Manchester City and Arsenal were and why this result gave the team confidence, Emery said: “Yes, they are two very different games. We were playing against Manchester City. We were very energetic in the game, we controlled the game, created a lot of chances, and deserved the win in the end. Today, maybe we should win again because we fought well against our opponents. We couldn’t control the game , and we didn’t create many chances, but we were calm.”
“At certain moments, we still controlled the game very well, but throughout the 90 minutes, the opponents played more of their own style, and we felt a little tired. But I think the substitute players had a big impact today and helped killed us.”