What Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said about injuries, two years at Villa & trophy hopes ahead of Bournemouth

Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery addressed the media before the Villans travel to take on AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.

The Spaniard praised his squad for their mentality and desire to become stronger. He spoke on how he is ‘very demanding’ with his players and stressed the importance of working hard to achieve their aims.

Villa are currently on a strong run in both the Premier League and the Champions League - they picked up a European win in midweek when they overcame Bologna by a score of 2-0 at Villa Park. Both John McGinn and Jhon Duran got their names on the scoresheet as Villa picked up their third Champions League win in as many games.

Meanwhile, in their previous Premier League game, the Villans came from behind to defeat Marco Silva’s Fulham at Craven Cottage last weekend. Raul Jimenez opened the scoring for the Cottagers, only for Villa to turn the game on its head thanks to goals from Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and an own goal from Issa Diop.

Bournemouth, on the other hand, were also victorious in their last Premier League game. They shocked audiences when they beat Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal by a score of 2-0 - they were given an early advantage when William Saliba was red carded for denying the Cherries a clear goalscoring opportunity.

The Gunners looked as though they may have been able to hold onto a draw - however, Ryan Christie broke the deadlock in the 70th minute, with Justin Kluivert scoring a penalty nine minutes later to seal all three points for Andoni Iraola’s men.

On the injury front, Villa have an almost clean bill of health across the board. The only senior team player who will not be available on Saturday is Jaden Philogene, as he is currently suspended after being sent off for receiving second yellow card against Fulham. Speaking to the media in a press conference, Emery said: “Hopefully we will improve more and more. It's been two years since I arrived here. We have been very demanding and we were always trying to be better in each moment we were working here.

“We achieved some objectives quickly, but there’s still a lot of work to do. When we are achieving the objectives we can face each season, it's very important to work very hard. This is the target with the players, club coaches. I am demanding with everybody, and of course we have to enjoy the way we are doing things. My demand is to play in Europe.

“The second dream I had in that moment and now is to get a trophy. We are looking forward to watching how we improve. I can feel comfort, I can feel confidence and I can feel the protection we have in our back four.”

On Villa’s injury news, Emery said: “We have all the players available, just not Jaden [Philogene] because he is suspended, and we have two young players playing with the U21s today - Lamare Bogarde and Sil [Swinkels].”