Emery thrilled with Villa response after recent ‘wars’

Unai Emery was thrilled with his Aston Villa players after they recorded their eighth consecutive win in all competitions with a 2-1 victory against Basel.

Evann Guessand and Youri Tielemans scored either side of Flavius Daniliuc’s equaliser on Thursday, with Villa now sitting third in the Europa League standings after MD6.

Villa are on their longest winning run as a top-flight side since March 1914 (run of 11 victories), while they have won as many as five of their first six games to begin a campaign in a major European competition for the very first time.

Tielemans, meanwhile, has four goal involvements in his last five games for Villa in major European competitions (two goals, two assists).

Since Villa returned to Europe in 2023-24, only John McGinn (13) and Ollie Watkins (10) have more goal involvements for them than the Belgium midfielder (nine, four goals, five assists).

After last weekend's last-gasp win over Arsenal moved them within three points of the Premier League leaders, Emery was pleased to see his side continue their momentum.

“I am happy and we knew before the match the difficulties we were facing today,” Emery told TNT Sports.

“After the last matches, a lot of wars. Brilliant wars for us, after our victory against Arsenal, it is not easy to recover our spirit and structure and mentality to keep the same hard work.

“We struggled today and the last 10 minutes they were close to drawing, but I am happy with how we got this victory. It is difficult to beat them here.

“Our idea at the start of the season was to manage all the players and give them the chance to play and help us.

“How we are managing it like today, I like how they are responding and how we are building the team with every player.”