Unai Emery admitted that Aston Villa has much more work to do, despite booking their place in the FA Cup fifth round after a 2-1 win over Tottenham on Sunday.
The goals of Jacob Ramsey and Morgan Rogers on both sides of the rest were sufficient for Villa, with the late strike of Mathys Tel and turned out to be just a consolation for the side of Ange Postecoglou.
Villa has now both won from their FA Cup matches in 2024-25, as many victories as they succeeded in the competition in the last nine seasons (W2 D2 L9-between 2015-16 and 2023-24).
And the hosts were worth their victory after they had registered an expected goals (XG) a total of 2.06 from their 16 shots to the 1.13 of their opponents of their 11 efforts.
“I am very happy. It was a fantastic game against a very good team, Tottenham, and we played very well. After a long time we are in the fifth round of the FA Cup,” said Emery.
“I know how much this competition means for our supporters and us, and I am happy for the fans. We play more or less as we have planned.
“We dominated and played with confidence and personality – everything we did today was more or less very good.”
All smiling of the boss pic.twitter.com/by69qlyse
– Aston Villa (@AVFCofficial) February 9, 2025
Emery also praised Rogers for his display, where the midfielder achieved his eighth goal in so many performances in Villa Park in the 64th minute of the meeting.
Since the beginning of December, Rogers has indeed scored the most goals by a Premier League player in a specific location on all competitions (one more than Cody Gakpo in Anfield, Seven).
Rogers also ended the game after he created a team-high four chances and fits more in the last third (19) played one of his teammates in the game.
“Morgan performs fantastic. His dedication to do his job every day from the first minute to 90 is great. We have done many positive things today,” Emery said.
“It will be very demanding for us in this competition, so we will have to improve and increase our level.
“With the motivation to get something in this competition, as well as the Premier League and Champions League. We still have a lot of work to do.”
There were also debut for January, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, in which Emery believes that the couple can play an important role for the rest of the campaign.
“We have to protect every player and try to adjust them to our structure and use their skills. Asensio, Rashford and Malen are versatile players in the attacking third,” he added.
“We can feel confident to have them.
“We are very demanding in our way because we want to be in the top six or top five in the Premier League and in the Champions League, where we are in the last 16.”
In Claret and Blue pic.twitter.com/vsbd77d9wn
– Aston Villa (@AVFCofficial) February 9, 2025
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