“It will be a tough game.
“They’ve got a lot of injuries and a couple of players away at AFCON, but we were probably lucky to get a point at Everton away, so we won’t be taking them lightly at all.
“I know the manager and the coaching staff from being Scottish, I know Jack (Grealish) well, Tim (Iroegbunam) and a few of their other players, so there are no easy games in this league.
“We need to be at our best again to try and keep the run going and keep climbing the table.
“We’re in a great position domestically, you never know what we can achieve there.
“In Europe, we’re in a strong position to qualify, and we have two games left in that, and then we have the FA Cup.
“It’s a very exciting few months ahead, but we need to take it step by step and approach it in the way we have been approaching it.”
John McGinn, pre-match.


"Three parts involved, player, team - my decision about the team & players we have - & club. For the club, it's a good deal, for me, I prefer him to stay here, but in case he was leaving, we are ready for it & we are working & I accept it.
"Now, after one year performing and helping us, Malen, we need the same situation in the last three years - one player competing with Ollie Watkins. The priority is someone with the characteristics of a striker who can compete or even play with Watkins."
“Obviously, it’s a decision not easy. Tough decision, but making sense. The player was being important, helping us, scoring goals, not being consistent in the starting eleven, but being very important. He knew it, and I spoke about it."
“He was happy and was being a protagonist, but not enough like he wanted. Players always have the possibility to change, and he opened his door to leaving in case there was some team that can give him something better than us."
Unai Emery on Donyell Malen’s move.


"We're creating something special here. More than the capacity to buy everything we want."
Unai Emery nails it.


"Very important - the teams dropped some points. Today is our time to maybe take a step forward and be more focusing on our game.
"We keep our standards high, the manager is always demanding of us. It is about our performance. We are not really looking at the table, but we just try to play every game and win as much as possible.
"It is going to be a tough game, they're quite physical, but we're at home, and we feel strong here. We are going to play nice attacking football."
Ian Maatsen, pre-match.


"This is the first target to set our standards as high as possible, then be as consistent.
"More or less, we are being consistent throughout the match as a club, as a team, as individual players. Being demanding and trying to focus wholly on our responsibility there.
"38 matches in the Premier League and it is a marathon. Hopefully, we can build strong through our supporters with the energy they give us.
"They are performing away fantastic. They have, like us, some circumstances with players injured or with AFCON. They're very competitive, and the coach is always being competitive. The last match they won in Nottingham, and we expect a difficult match."
Unai Emery, pre-match.


"Villa are a side in good form and we know we have to play well. Couple of shocks yesterday, so why not today?"
David Moyes, pre-match.


"They compete very well. We had our chances, we didn't score and they had less chances, but they scored. They [Everton] compete well and after the goal they defended well.
“They have very good players and are strong tactically. They deserved to win. They competed fantastically. It's the Premier League.
"A lot of matches we play like that we win. They competed well, this is Premier League - they're a very good team and they have a very good coach.
"Yes, we can avoid the goal, but we didn't.
"It is the referee's decision [not penalising Garner].
"We lost a very good opportunity. We did a very good season until now, and today we lost. We will get balance because we are third in the league.
“We are not a contender to be in the top four like we are now.
"There is other teams with more potential than us.
"Pity for us [John McGinn’s injury] but we must accept that players can get injured.
“We must analyse the match and keep going.
"Tomorrow rest and on Tuesday we come back in.
"Keep working and thinking how we can improve."
Unai Emery, post-match.