“Obviously my teammates have been kind to me when I arrived.

“I spoke to the French guys and they explained to me how it works here.

“Now, everything is good and I am starting to understand how my teammates play. I am adapting my style of play to my teammates and I feel good.

“I am starting to know how to play in this team and understand how the coach wants me to play. I think through time it will get better 100 per cent.

“I don’t have a position where I prefer to play. As long as I am on the pitch, I am happy. Last season I played number 10 on the right, because at Nice we played with two number 10s. At Villa I am playing a bit wider, but as long as I am on the pitch I am happy.

“Football has changed. Nowadays we see players in different positions and it helps the coach to move players into different positions. When we play a game the opposition won’t know what is going to happen.

“If you have versatile players, they can move and change. The opponents don’t know how to defend you as sometimes you’re on the left and then on the right. It is better to have versatile players in your team, rather than players who can only play one position.

“Everyone has their own story. They made great careers in England. I hope I will do the same. I don’t want to follow anyone and I want to make my own history.

“It is true that we struggled at the beginning a little bit.

“Every season is different, but we are now starting to win and we are stronger in difficult moments now.

“We have confidence in each other and that’s getting better and better in each game. I hope it stays like this, because we can achieve a lot of things together.

“Maybe when the team changed, some players arrive and you have to adapt the team to the new players. The coach had to teach the new players to play with their new teammates.

“This is maybe one of the reasons we struggled at the start. When I see the quality of the team, I am not scared. There is a lot of quality.

“The intensity is different in France. We have more possession and take time to build. In England it is counter attacking all the time. There is no time to breathe! Even the duels are strong and it’s hard to take the ball from the opponent.”

**Evann Guessand, pre-match.**



“It all happened very quickly.

“It was a new environment. I played in the youth academy for the first two years, and then I made my Premier League debut. Last year was my first season, and I played a total of 16 matches.”

“It was a special feeling [returning to Feyenoord]. I played in the youth academy for 10 years and I know a lot of people at the club. I know how the club works.

“The Europa League is a good stage to show what I’m capable of. I think we played well as a team. I’m happy with the win.

“The manager also told me he expects more from me because I showed last year that I can do it. I feel that myself. That’s why I want to repay his faith when I step on the pitch.”

**Lamare Bogarde pre-match.**



“The Premier League is so, so important for every team.

”This year, just this year, we have another two teams like Sunderland and Leeds, historically always in the Premier League. Burnley has also been more in the Premier League than the Championship in recent years.

“How they are being demanding to stay in the Premier League is normal. Every coach, player and club, they are making a huge effort — some teams economically, others working hard tactically. Like every team in the league, every match is very difficult.

“We are not a team normally winning matches easily, by dominating a lot. We have to be focused and demanding tactically, and in the analysis of the opponent.

“We are still building a team and we have new players who need more time to adapt to us and be comfortable in our structure. In the last matches we are performing and competing, getting good results.

“The first objective I have for Sunday is: don’t relax. Now is the moment we have to push more and more than normal. On Sunday, after our start in the Premier League and before the next international break, it is a very important match.

“It was very important (the win against Feyenoord).

“Firstly because we are getting confidence and feeling stronger collectively and individually in everything we are working on, and the results helps it.

“We are very, very demanding and we want to be consistent overall in all the competitions we are facing. The Europa League is something we are excited and motivated by, and we won the first two matches.

“Through it we can feel confidence and we can feel comfortable in this way in this competition. In Premier League matches we’re under our expectations and demands to try to be consistent and get more points.

“Now we have the challenge on Sunday. The challenge on Sunday against Burnley after we won last week, struggling against Fulham.

“We are playing at home and at home we are feeling comfortable with our supporters, transmitting our energy to each other. Now, we will rest, eat good food and be ready to play at 2pm on Sunday.”

**Unai Emery, pre-match.**



"Time. Give him minutes. He needs to be demanding in our tactical idea - how we want to play. I am happy with how he is working. I know, and he knows, that he has to continue with his adaptation. He is on the right path."

**Unai Emery on Harvey Elliott.**



“We play at home, we always feel strong at home. It’s not going to be an easy game, no game in the Premier League is easy. We have to respect them, but we’re at our home. We have to show them there’s nothing here for them.”

**Ian Maatsen, pre-match.**
###

"So happy because the players responded very well and we were pushing a lot. We needed to react quick and adapt quickly as well. We finished the game winning today and getting balance in the league.

"He [Donyell Malen] took this challenge strongly to play in the starting eleven. He got comfortable in the structure and closer with Ollie Watkins. He scored and today his performance was very good. For him it is very important to get confident and be a protagonist playing football. We will continue working to try to identify his best position.

"We settled him a little bit with some technical balance. He was close to score and he scored, fantastic.

"I finished the match and I saw him and he [Emiliano Buendía] is getting better.

"I saw Emi Buendia and he is recovering. Hopefully it is not more but he is still getting better.

"Here in Villa Park we have to make it a fortress, we have to compete and we are finishing before the international break in good balance. We are feeling more comfortable than we were. I am really happy how the players have responded with our demands.

"We recover [from injury] Ross Barkley and Amadou Onana. Lamare Bogarde is playing fantastic, he is adapting to our demands. Hopefully we can keep getting better and adding more players. We have other players to help us. Today, very grateful to the supporters and now we are going to rest for two weeks. We will be motivated and excited for the rest of the season.

"We are happier and the players will play and be with their national team. The next month will be demanding and with demanding matches. I will rest as well and I will work and analyse how we are playing, how we improve things."

**Unai Emery, post-match.**



“Fantastic, because he is getting mature as a person.

“He was here when I arrived three years ago. Since then, until today, his development is clear.

“He was out on loan and then wasn’t playing. Sometimes we were demanding of him, pushing him and punishing him sometimes.

“He has reacted fantastically and he is playing with confidence. He is adding us one player more as a midfielder and a centre-back.

“I think his best position is a midfielder. We are also adding other players from injury like Barkley and Onana.”

**Unai Emery on Lamare Bogarde.**



"We are doing something like that with Guessand, but Guessand is getting more on the right side,” Emery explained when asked about Malen's position as the second striker.

“We want them to attack the goal. With Malen, he played more central and not defending on the right.

“We wanted to get the structure and John McGinn helped to play lower. Really, Malen played fantastic and he felt comfortable. He felt like he was in the position to help exploit his qualities.

“We are thinking in our structure and then adapting of them. We were trying to get one player to attack aggressively in behind. If we can get Malen close to the box, he has qualities and is a fast player to shoot and he is clinical. Today he showed it.

“He was not getting physically some matches before, like against Sunderland and Feyenoord he had an action like today. Getting confidence and trying to give them positions on the field where they are really feeling better to exploit their qualities. Today he got it.

“Our demands are high demands.

“He always works well and has a commitment to try his best is there. Sometimes he performs better or worse.

“I spoke to him yesterday about the position I wanted him in today. He is one player more to help Watkins get to the opponent box. He did fantastic. The most important thing, like with Watkins not scoring, he still did his work.”

**Unai Emery on Donyell Malen.**



“If you’ve scored a goal at Villa Park, it’s an amazing feeling,” he said.

“You want that every weekend. If you start, you want that; if you come on, you want that; there’s no difference for me.

“Today it was a good day.

“I trust myself and what I can do.

“I knew when I signed here that Villa had good players and I knew that it was a big club.

“Sometimes things take a bit of time and a bit of getting used to, but I know that I trust myself and my ability on the pitch.

“That’s the most important thing.

“We didn’t start that well but the thing about this team is it’s been through a lot for the last two or three years, the coaches as well.

“We’ve got connections and we trust each other. When things aren’t going well, it’s tough, but we’ve been honest with each other, we stick with each other and from there everyone was determined to turn it around.

“We’ve come through this period of four games really well.”

**Donyell Malen post-match.**