Aston Villa boss Unai Emery, speaking to BBC Match of the Day: “We kept the same game plan we had at the first half, but the first half they were playing fantastic. They were dominating. We couldn’t get the ball easily. We were defending low, we are defending well. We didn’t concede corners, only one corner and they score. But we needed to be passionate and try to keep being resilient and we were speaking after the first half in the dressing room.”
On what he told the substitutes as they came on: “We were getting better but we needed to change some fresh legs and as well different players.”
On Ollie Watkins’s performance: “He was so, so focused. Keeping the game plan like we planned and doing his tasks, he’s normally getting his numbers and today scoring goals is fantastic.”
On the chance to go level with league leaders Arsenal if they beat them on Tuesday: “We are playing against Arsenal and our mentality is to compete strongly. And we are not going to speak about our target in the league until we are in the day 34 because there are teams contending with a huge power to get points like Liverpool, like Chelsea and they are keeping contending more than us to be there. Of course we are performing very well, we are in a row winning matches, we are competing fantastic, we competed first half fantastic and we were struggling. But the second half more or less like this season we are progressively getting better and being humble.”
On if he sees his side in the title race: “No, 38 matches. If it finishes tomorrow then this match against Arsenal is finishing the league. There is still another 20 matches to play.”