Unai Emery press conference: Tottenham vs Aston Villa preview

The Villa manager started his briefing by sending his condolences to Valencia, where floods have led to the deaths of more than 200 people: “I want to send my condolences. We have had a tragedy in Valencia, I am very sad. Already my condolences to the people affected and the families of the victims. Hopefully they can quickly recover from everything that happened there.”

Emery released the latest team news: “We only had one injured player and that was Ross Barkley. He has a small injury but he will not be available for the next two weeks.”

Emery expressed his condolences for former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, while stating that new boss Ruben Amorim deserves the job: “I don’t think the sacking of Ten Hag is a good thing, but this is football. Amorim, I know him. He is doing a very good job in Portugal at Sporting Lisbon and if Manchester United decide to sign him, it will be because he deserves it.”

Ahead of the clash with Tottenham, where Villa are fourth in the Premier League, Emery insists he is not looking further ahead than Sunday’s match: “With my experiences, when I think about the next game, I am wrong. My focus is on the next match and I only think about this. Sometimes I make plans for the coming weeks or months, but I want to learn with experiences I tell my players to try to be focused on the next match the best for the match to play against Tottenham. For me the focus is on the match against Tottenham. Every match we play, we try to identify our corrections, our mistakes, our process and analyze how we are now and how they are, with the players that they have.”