Aston Villa v Brentford: No panic as Unai Emery aims to halt winless run
Unai Emery has promised no-one at Villa is pressing the panic button as they look to halt their slide down the Premier League.
Villa host Brentford on Wednesday trying to halt a run of eight matches without a win in all competitions. That includes a return of just two points from their last five league games which has seen them fall into the bottom half of the table.
But while Emery conceded the poor run has perhaps impacted players’ confidence he does not sense any major cause for alarm in the dressing room.
He said: "Confidence is every day. You can't buy confidence at the supermarket. Confidence is something you've got to feel.
"We have to feel confident individually and collectively.
"When you are winning, winning, winning you feel confident. When you are not winning and winning and winning of course you can lose some confidence.
"But I am balanced now and the players are too. I'm looking at how they are facing this challenge and they are not panicking.
"They believe we can recover some points that we lost by playing in the same structure more or less.”
While admitting Villa must improve their performances, Emery does not believe it will require major surgery to get them firing again and claims tonight’s performance is almost as important as the result.
Brentford sit a point above the hosts in the table but have the second-worst away record in the Premier League with only Southampton, who visit Villa Park on Saturday, having taken fewer points on the road.
Villa, meanwhile, play four of their next six top flight matches on home turf where they are eager to rediscover some consistency, one year on from setting a new club record for consecutive home league wins. Emery’s men have won just six of their last 17 home games since beating Manchester City and Arsenal in the space of 72 hours last December.
“In the Champions League, we are doing fantastic at home,” said Emery. “But in the Premier League we are not being consistent and this is my challenge, how we can recover our confidence, our power and our strong structure playing at home.
“We need the supporters, we need a great atmosphere every match. My concern with the players is we have to try and get it through our structure and playing well. Tomorrow is very, very important to try to play well.
“This is my focus. It is not only to win but how we can win, playing comfortable and confident. Through it, maybe sometimes we are not going to win but we will be closer to winning always.
“Of course, your confidence is always higher if you are winning. If you are losing it's lower but it's always about the balance and not changing.
"When I was winning lots of matches before and also when I was winning lots of matches here I always stayed balanced.
"Now we are not winning, I remain well balanced. The confidence is lower maybe but for me it's not important. It's how we can play and how we can win again.”