Unai Emery singles out most pleasing aspect after 'serious' Aston Villa win at Fulham
Unai Emery hailed Aston Villa's "mature" performance against Fulham at Craven Cottage and was particularly pleased that his players learned from the mistakes they made in the draw with Ipswich Town before the October international break.
Morgan Rogers scored his second goal of the season to put Villa back on level terms in the ninth minute after Raul Jimenez's early opener, while Emi Martinez saved Andreas Pereira's penalty before the break. Ollie Watkins then put Villa in front minutes before he was denied a goal-scoring opportunity by Joachim Andersen.
The Dane was sent off before Villa capitalised by going two goals ahead as Lucas Digne's cross was turned into his own net by Issa Diop. Jaden Philogene was later sent off himself after receiving a second bookable offence, but Villa's fifth win of the season was already in the bag by then.
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"Every match we play is a difficult match and we have to be very, very consistent, focusing each moment being 100 per cent," Emery said in his press conference. "Today we corrected a lot of things we did wrong at Ipswich. I am very happy because we reacted very well, playing being serious and mature.
"[I am] Very proud of our mentality here. The supporters always travel with us to be here because it is through this competition we can get the next year in Europe. We are trying to keep the same performances we had in the Premier League last year and be strong.
"Then, enjoying it as well and trying to compete in the Champions League too. At the moment, we are getting good results. Today, we needed to play this match competing against Fulham who are in a very good moment.
"It is always difficult to win here. The first thing is to compete and avoid their style and idea, how they are playing. We wanted to stop them playing with the ball and stop them offensively because they are strong. We did a fantastic job.
"Even when they had a penalty and scored first, we focused together. The first half we finished drawing and playing like we wanted. The second half we managed to keep that.
"We respected them until the last minute because here they are feeling strong. I am proud of our work and now we can change our mind to Tuesday."