Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna pays Unai Emery and Aston Villa ultimate compliment
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna has long admired Unai Emery's work after studying his teams down the years.
The newly-promoted Tractor Boys host Aston Villa at Portman Road on Sunday in search of their first league win of the season, while Emery's side are targeting their sixth consecutive victory in all competitions. Villa come into the game on the back of a 2-1 win over Wycombe Wanderers in the Carabao Cup, which followed the 3-1 win over Wolves last weekend.
"I think he's done a fantastic job, I have to say," McKenna said of Emery in his press conference. "He's a manager that I admire a lot and I've studied his teams for many years.
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"I've come up against his teams at Arsenal and Villarreal and he built a fantastic team at Villarreal with a lot of the same sort of ingredients from a tactical level as he has with this Aston Villa side.
"We share some principles I think in terms of how both teams are set up but they are executing at a fantastic level."
Villa have won their last three Premier League matches, their best run since five successive victories between March and April 2023. They could equal their longest away winning streak from the beginning of a league campaign of three, last set in 2020.
Meanwhile, Ipswich are looking to avoid losing more than one of their opening three home fixtures of a league campaign for the first time since 2011 in the Championship.