Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has said his side’s 4-0 win over Bournemouth is the standard to strive for moving forward.
Villa issued the perfect response to last weekend’s defeat at Liverpool, after thrashing high-flying Bournemouth at Villa Park.
Emi Buendia opened the scoring for the home side with a fabulous free-kick, before Amadou Onana’s low drive doubled the host’s lead before half-time.
Villa had Emi Martinez to thank for preserving their two-goal lead. The Argentine was alert to save brilliantly from Alex Scott’s deflected effort, before going one better to keep out Antoine Semenyo’s penalty, awarded after a handball from Morgan Rogers.
That save lifted Villa, who added a third when substitute Ross Barkley headed in from a corner kick. Another of the introductions, Donyell Malen, completed the scoring five minutes later.
Emery was delighted with the performance from his team, who are continuing to recover from ‘a bad start to the season’. The win was a fifth in six Premier League games for Villa, and Emery said their performance should be the standard going forward.
“I am very happy with the win. We are recovering from a bad start to the season,” he said to Sky Sports.
“The effort physically was a huge effort and to manage the squad with different players with the effort we needed we can feel proud after the game.
“This is the level of the players. We are trying to set our standards in everything, every day how we prepare the game and the quality of the players is important. Fantastic goal and Emi has this quality to score set piece goals. How the players got the commitment before the match to focus and in the way we played is really something. This is how we are building and trying to recover, feeling better in the league and Europa League to get the performances we need for the future.
“Now our balance is better in the squad with the players, more focus and getting the challenges we have. The players are responding well on the field.
“Very important how we finished today, winning and feeling good.”
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