Unai Emery battling to keep calm amid Aston Villa slump
Unai Emery admits Villa’s seven-match winless run has left him battling to keep his frustration in check.
The boss says keeping a lid on his emotions is his toughest challenge as he looks to pull his team out of a slump which began with conceding a late equaliser to Bournemouth last month.
Villa head to in-form Chelsea tomorrow still only three points outside the Premier League top four but seeking a victory to kickstart their campaign and Emery, with nearly 20 years of managerial experience behind him, knows staying calm is key.
He said: “I am myself, very demanding. In my career if I got my objective, more or less, it is because I was being demanding and trying to win a lot, trying to set the objective high.
“I did it more than less. But when you are not getting it your frustration is higher than normal.
“This is my concern with the team, with the players, starting with myself because if we are not winning a match we have to win I am feeling frustrated.
“My demand is don’t lose opportunities like we lost in some matches. This is the frustration I have to control because the only way I can improve it is to work and keep the balance, trying to feel confidence with the players and transmit it to them.”
Villa, who sit eighth in the table heading into the weekend, had enjoyed their best start to a Premier League season for a quarter of the century before conceding an equaliser with virtually the last kick against the Cherries on October 26.
They have since lost at Liverpool and Tottenham, drawn with Crystal Palace, while also being knocked out of the Carabao Cup and going winless in their last two Champions League matches.
Emery, whose team have kept just one clean sheet in their last 17 Premier League matches dating back to April, believes it is the small details which have cost his team.
He continued: “This is the frustration, when you are playing and more or less deserving to win.
“When you are showing on the field you are controlling the game and better than the opponent is the moment you can feel frustrated.
“When you are drawing in that match, or even against Crystal Palace last week, when you deserve more and don’t get it, we are also analysing why?
“Maybe you can play better than the opponent but you have improve the small details to avoid some mistakes. This is the most difficult thing in football.
“If not, the better team wins against the worse team all the time. In football, you can change it. We did that for two years and we have to be deep in our analysis on the small details to be consistent against those teams better than us.
“The last matches and the last result I try to manage myself: The balance, the frustration with the players. Now we are going to play on Sunday and I know we can win, we can draw or we can lose.”