“Brentford, for me, is the best consistent team, or one of the best consistent teams in the Premier League for the last year.

“Playing tactically, improving. I knew when I was at Arsenal in 2018/19, it’s not the same Brentford I know now.

“They are improving, they are tactically as well adding a lot of things. They are playing very brilliant football with the ball.

“They are playing competitive. They can play long balls and score one goal, they can do one combination, building up, doing passes, progressing, and using their qualities to score a goal, different ways.

“I appreciate a lot, and respect a lot, their work, their coach, their players. It is a team two years ago when I arrived here, we finished the season in front of them [by] two points.

“Now, again, they are competing last year and this year, they are in front of us, they are a contender as well to be in the top 10, and now we are fighting with them.

“I like to play matches against every team in Premier League because every team, they have good players, good coach, proper history in the Premier League.

“Maybe not historically Brentford, in the Premier League, but the last years, they are being amazing in their work and their processes.”

Unai Emery on Brentford pre-match.




“We need to work game by game.

“The first is Brentford, against a good team, really strong defensively. Brentford have good strikers, so we need to prepare well [for] the game, and I hope that we win.

“Sometimes we don’t have the result we want, but it’s part of football, so we need to stay stronger, to work, everybody, and I think the results will be back.

“For me, the atmosphere is better on the night at Villa Park. Before the game, it is more like a show, so on the field we see the atmosphere is better on the night.”

Boubacar Kamara pre-match.



“Always, finding solutions, when we are winning, when we are losing, when we are drawing.

“Of course, we are now clearly thinking only on the next match and trying to respect every team, trying to respect every competition.

“The Premier League is the most consistent competition for us. Trying to bring through it, the objective at the end of the season.

“Tomorrow, we are going to try to play, very difficult, Brentford, they are our opponent.

“They have one point more than us, and the challenge is Brentford.”

Unai Emery pre-match.



“We started the game brightly and came out on the front foot. We got the early goal and that settled the crowd’s nerves. A few recent results haven’t gone our way, but we have full faith that we can turn it around.

“We just need to focus on the next game [against Southampton]. We need to create some momentum and try and create a bit of a fortress here at home. This is something to build on.

“We’ve been here a while now. We’ve been in worse situations at the club than this. We’re like warriors and we’re here to fight to the end. It was important we got a win here tonight and now we move on.”

Ollie Watkins post match



“Scoring like [Morgan Rogers] did was fantastic, because this is the way to get confidence again.

“We did very well over 90 minutes, particularly in the first 30 minutes when we scored three goals. But it was not a moment to relax for us, because we drew 3-3 against them last season.

“Today the defence did a fantastic job. Tyrone Mings cleared some very good balls in the box. It was his first game in the Premier League in a long time, so it was very important.

“The team has to try and get a very good feeling again here at home, a fortress.”

Unai Emery post match