Aston Villa have regained confidence after a difficult end to 2024, Unai Emery says after his team defeated Premier League strugglers Leicester City.
Villa, who were looking for their first win in three games after a defeat against Newcastle United and a draw against Brighton, had to rely on a 76th-minute goal from Leon Bailey to take the three points on Saturday.
Ross Barkley's 58th-minute opener was canceled out by Stephy Mavididi five minutes later as second-from-bottom Leicester threatened to frustrate Villa, who had won just three of their previous 10 league games to end 2024.
Villa are now ten games unbeaten in the league at Villa Park, winning six and drawing four. Only Arsenal (12) are currently enjoying a longer unbeaten run at home in the Premier League, and Emery believes his team has regained its strength on home soil.
“In the second half we got better and better and created chances, not very clear chances, but enough to score the two goals as we did,” he told BBC Sport.
“That match with those three points is fantastic for us. We start the second half of the season here at home with a win and we feel the confidence again. Those three points are very important. We keep trying to get stronger.”
The Villa boss was without a number of key players, including the injured Pau Torres and suspended duo Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers, for the match.
“We should be proud of how we are doing despite the difficulties,” Emery said.
“The difficulties today were that Leicester performed well, and it is difficult to beat them.”
The home side had to wait until first-half stoppage time before registering their first shot on target through Matty Cash, but they put in a much better performance after the restart, attempting ten shots, four of which were on target.
Premier League games unbeaten in a row at Villa Park pic.twitter.com/SQ1PtRJOdY
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 4, 2025
Following their FA Cup third round draw against West Ham, Emery's side will travel to Everton and Arsenal in their next league matches.
“Our challenge now is to play two away games in a row. I hope we can get enough points to be in the top ten or top eight,” Emery added.
They sit eighth in the table with 32 points from twenty games and are just three points behind fifth-placed Newcastle.
Meanwhile, Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy felt his side deserved more from the match.
“We were on course to get something out of this game,” he said.
“On the whole, we controlled the game and didn't give away any big chances. That's why it's disappointing that we didn't get anything out of this game. But we have to make sure we get these performances and also convert them into points.”
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