3-1

"I want to be a small family. I want everybody to have feelings with our fans and try to take our heart strongly defending the Aston Villa shirt, Aston Villa’s history and the present.

“That is the emotion that I want to create and share with our supporters. Then, I want to be very, very demanding and ambitious.

“To get our ambitions, we are working hard and always improving our capacity, collectively and individually, and building our mentality to compete and win.

“Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia are always in our minds.”

Unai Emery.


“It will be a nice one, a really proud moment for me on a personal, selfish point of view. It was a club I spent about 11 years at, spent most of my life at from a 10-year-old boy up until leaving for Wolves.

“There was a lot of, not household names, but big players, it’s a big football club. There were quite a few of us young players that came through at a similar sort of time.

"Gareth Barry was a year or two above that went on and had a fabulous career, but there was a lot who went on to become full internationals, good Premier League players. Steven Davis, Gary Cahill, Liam Ridgewell, loads, too many to mention around that time.

"It was a good club to be at, it was a club that gave young players opportunities and it’s doing that now. People like Jacob Ramsay and others that are coming through, they’ve got some really good young players coming through again.

"I made my Premier League debut here and had some special moments. It’s a club that’s very close to my heart, so it will be a really special moment going back.

"It’s a brilliant football club, and it’s good to see them doing so well now. All I want to do is win the game, but it will be nice, a really proud moment.

"It was the right thing for me and the football club at the time, so it didn’t feel like a big, big change. But I’ll be very, very proud going out, a lot of my family, my wife’s side, they’re from Birmingham, they support Villa too, so it’ll be a nice one for the family.”

Rob Edwards, Luton Manager.


“We have to face each match and each competition separate a little bit because they are different. In the Premier League, we play 38 matches trying to be very, very consistent. On Sunday, Luton are coming here to play thinking as well about the opportunity to beat us because they need the points.

"Every match in the Premier League is difficult. We were speaking with the players. When we lost here to Everton in the Carabao Cup, it was a frustrating day. They were excited after that match and they played Luton at home and they lost. Why, is the question we asked ourselves. It’s because each team has the players and a tactical strong structure.

"Luton is one of them. As a team they are excited because they were promoted and are motivated. They will be difficult and will fight for 90 minutes. We have to impose and try to respect them, and then play our game with our supporters at home. We need to be confident and playing in our idea.

“We have to separate every competition and focus on every match with the idea that we must build a team. We will need players trying to be ready to play and performing when we are playing in Premier League, when we are playing in Conference League.

“It’s not about trying to play different players in different competitions, it’s about trying to be ready with the players and to get performances collectively when we are changing players.

“It’s increasing the challenge for the opponent because they are coming thinking that it’s difficult to win, difficult to draw. It’s a great challenge for each team coming here and trying to break it (the 11-game winning run).

“For us, the challenge is still being very hard and motivating because we want to continue being and feeling good with our supporters at home, connecting and transmitting our energy. This is the idea I want to find on Sunday, and then try to play strongly, tactically and within our structure.

"I want to add more forward players, Moussa Diaby, Jhon Duran, Leon Bailey, Zaniolo, scoring goals, playing well and being brilliant when they are on the pitch. Adding each one of their skills trying to win the match.

"The message is the same at the beginning when I arrived here one year ago. When we lost in Newcastle 5-1 the first match, the same message is now after matches we won recently. It is that we are not contenders.

"There are top seven teams in the Premier League, contender to be in those positions. We can fight and try to get those positions if someone is not being consistent. Brighton is playing amazing, West Ham is progressing amazing. We are in.

"We have to try to play consistently and progressing, then being ambitious. But the same message I sent at the beginning of the season is now. We are happy being fifth in the league and we want to keep it for a long time."

Unai Emery, pre-match.


"When I arrived here 12 months ago we won the first match against Manchester United, but even then I didn’t feel like our progress was the same.

"Maybe the key moment was when we lost two matches here, against Arsenal and Leicester. Both 4-2. We conceded a lot of goals and were not in control like I want. It was a key moment. I was demanding of the players, and we are now creating more and more.

"As well at the beginning, it was not easy to try and understand with our supporters the idea we were trying to create. Now, we have the consequences progressively of winning and everybody can understand the idea we want to create. Still, there is a lot of work to do here. Still things we can improve. We need to be more consistent. We won, and I am very happy, but I think there’s still things that we can improve.

"It’s not only understanding, it’s trying to watch everybody playing with our identity clear and playing trying to connect with the emotion and the feelings. It’s not only playing tactically strong, it’s as well playing with emotions. Both progressively we are doing, bur there is still more to do. I want to create a great atmosphere with our supporters, even more than now.

"We have to be demanding, to focus on each match. We are winning matches because we are being very focused. We are demanding defensively.

"We are trying to build a team with high commitment. We are between another seven teams, they are really and have showed their power. If we are working like that and doing this process, of course we can progress and still be in the moment we have in the table. Chelsea, Manchester United and Brighton are not top seven, but they are contenders to get European positions like us.

"I want to face each match being focused, preparing, being respectful. We played against Newcastle and lost 5-1, we played against Liverpool and lost 3-0. They were better than us. That is the reality.

"We are going to play Newcastle and Liverpool at home and maybe we can change the matches we play. When we lost against Newcastle and Liverpool, I told the players, ‘I want to reduce the distance they showed to us when we play them at home’.

"Those matches will show if it is possible or not (to finish in the top four). We have to face each match playing three points against each team."

“The challenge is now to try to continue winning at home and connecting with our supporters and doing something special. We are trying to impose and play our style. Today was very important to win, but we started to respect them a lot preparing the game.

"We tried to avoid everything they were doing well, their section actions and getting into the box, corners and some transitions as well. We did it. Progressively in 90 minutes we imposed and respected them. We did very different work like in other matches. We got a lot of offsides from them. I am very happy with the match we played."

"Set-pieces are very important and I am demanding with the players and with Austin (MacPhee, Villa's specialist set-piece coach) as well. We have to score goals from set-pieces and do well from corners. I am happy when we are scoring goals from set-pieces.

"Set-pieces are very important and I am demanding with the players and with Austin as well.

”We have to score goals from set-pieces and do well from corners. I am happy when we are scoring goals from set-pieces.

“I am trying to be responsible in everything. Each coach has a responsibility as well. Austin, I gave him responsibility because he is working specially in it.

"I have worked a lot in my career on set-pieces, offensively and defensively, but football is progressing a lot and we now have individual coaches for them. We have two, three or four working. We have two analyst coaches as well preparing things.

"We have Austin preparing things and he has an analyst coach working with him too. I like to work on each situation with each player, couples and in groups. In football, my method is to individually and by groups work a lot, then working collectively on what they want to do.

"On set-pieces, I am happy with what we are doing. I am supporting him and sometimes giving my opinion on set-pieces, but he is 80 per cent doing.

“[Zaniolo’s substitution] 50 tactically and 50 yellow card. The second half was the same with Cash and Kamara. It was a match with lots of duels and long balls, second actions. It was very tight the fight between the players and I didn’t want two players to fight and get second yellows.

"It’s the reality. We have to be demanding to focus on each match. We are winning matches really because we are being very focused. We are demanding defensively in our structure. We are trying to build a team with high commitment with their teammates and the club.

Unai Emery, post match.


"Let's be honest, today was a difficult afternoon for us.

"There is a gulf between the teams. Aston Villa are an exceptional team in a great moment and they are really confident.

"They have a brilliant manager and very good players. At 3-0 down with 30 minutes to go, I'm on the touchline thinking: 'This is difficult.' So I'm really pleased with how the players stayed in it, stayed committed and found a way to get the next goal.

"It's important to me, it's important to our fans to see the players are never ever giving in and sticking at it. So it was a difficult afternoon but I'm proud of how the players stuck to the task.

"He added: ""I think a lot of people are talking about Villa now in the media and people in the game - we all realise how good they are. I was here watching them last week against West Ham and they were equally devastating.

"I watched them in midweek when they were again, and they were again today. They are a very good team who are confident and they are in a really good moment. It was a difficult time to come to Villa Park when they are in such good form.

“[How good are Villa?] Ask me once we've played Man City and then I might be able to say once I've stood on the touchline against them! They're already competing in Europe and they are competing in and around the top four right now.

"Newcastle got in that top four last season and Villa look like they're already at that sort of level. I really do think they're an excellent team. We've got to keep our spirits up.

"The lads know today wasn't necessarily going to define us but we don't want to lose any football matches. Maybe we can turn up the heat a little more at Kenilworth Road which is a little bit different to away from home. But next week we have a team coming to town that may even be a little ahead of this club right now.

"We're well aware it will be difficult again but we'll try our best. Not many people would have thought we'd get anything from playing Villa away, Liverpool and Manchester United but we'll try. To do so we have to be almost perfect and today we weren't."

Rob Edwards, post match.