Aston Villa boss Unai Emery spoke to BBC’s Match of the Day after beating Manchester City 1-0: “Our fortress. Villa Park. We are feeling here so, so good. The positive energy to us was fantastic. We needed to show our wishes and commitment, and our capacity to play.
“I think everything trying to get together, the positive energy, the quality of the players, the tactics that we did and the effort. I am so proud. How the supporters are pushing us is very, very important.
“We responded fantastic. Of course, we started the first 10 minutes a little bit off. But then we started getting in good positions, and we were creating chances. Of course, we needed the second goal in case they scored. They did score, but it was offside, very tight.
“It is important to keep being consistent in this way.
On goalscorer Matty Cash: “He has a very good shot. He scored two goals a few weeks ago with his national team. Of course, second actions are really important, and he did a very good goal.
“We have players who are progressively getting better. Being confident and playing with qualities. This is the combination we have to have.”
Villa defender Matty Cash also spoke to BBC’s Match of the Day: “It was a nice strike. It’s something we worked on yesterday in training, not exactly for me to hit it
“It was a special corner, but it wasn’t meant for me.
“I’ve had a few like them. I’ve scored four this season for club and country. On the edge of the box I like shooting, it’s what I like to do in training, hit them nice and sweet.
“We work a lot on set-pieces. Over the last couple of years, there have been a lot of set-pieces that have won us games, and today is no different.
“The last month we’ve been really good. Defensively, really good. We’ve just stuck together as a group and at Villa Park, they’re always behind us.”
Did you know?
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Aston Villa have lost just two of their 24 Premier League home games since the start of last season (W14 D8), with no ever-present side losing fewer matches in the competition across that period (Liverpool and Arsenal, also two).
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Matty Cash has scored two goals across his last five Premier League appearances, more strikes than he managed in his previous 57 games in the competition (one).
