Unai Emery has put his birthday celebrations on hold until Sunday as he plots another upset against Manchester United.
The former Arsenal boss quit Villarreal to take charge at Aston Villa this week. The Spanish coach has thrown himself into the job with long hours at their training ground and didn’t get a chance to mark turning 51 on Thursday.
Villa haven’t beaten Manchester United at home in the Premier League in 23 Premier League games - an unwanted top-flight record dating back to August 1995. But Emery is undaunted after masterminding Villarreal’s first ever major trophy when they won the Europa League final on penalties in May 2021 at United’s expense.
Emery said: ”My birthday will be on Sunday if we win. If we win against Manchester United, I am going to enjoy it after this match. On Thursday, I didn’t even have time to answer a lot of messages.”
Emery was hounded out of the Emirates after a brief reign from May 2018 to November 2019 having succeeded Arsene Wenger. But he has restored his reputation as a serial winner at Villarreal, where he won the Europa League for a fourth time.
Villa’s billionaire owners, Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, now hope the Spaniard can turn their club into contenders for silverware too.
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He succeeds Steven Gerrard with Villa languishing 16th despite Edens and Sawiris pumping in millions for new players after injecting money into the club by buying more shares. Emery feels Villa’s squad are “underperforming” but is confident of improving their fortunes.
He has watched their recent matches against Erik ten Hag’s United as preparation, including a 2-2 draw at home to United in January which he says gives Villa hope for new glory starting tomorrow.
Emery added: “My dream is to win a trophy with Aston Villa and a personal challenge. My second objective is to play with Aston Villa in Europe. But now we have to think only about the next match because we are not in a good position.
“My only focus now is Manchester United. Our players are underperforming and my focus is to try to help them. We are going to prepare first for Sunday, being ambitious to try and push our ideas.
“We were watching this morning the last match Aston Villa played against Manchester United and the result was so close. Really, I have confidence and the players are confident as well.
“We were Friday morning working and thinking and doing the first analysis of Manchester United and I think we are now thinking of Sunday with our supporters. I think it’s so important to play here in Villa Park with our supporters because I think we are better with them.”
Emery claims he is yet to decide who will skipper Villa after Gerrard controversially took the captaincy off Tyrone Mings and gave it to John McGinn, who has struggled for form this term.
