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Louise Thomas
Editor
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has told his team to keep the pressure on under-fire Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag.
The Dutchman brings his United side to Villa Park on Sunday with intense speculation on his position after a desperate start to the season.
Defeat against Villa, who are on a high after beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League, would send Ten Hag closer to the edge.
While Ten Hag’s future is uncertain, Emery’s stock could not be higher as he has led a remarkable turnaround at the midlands club.
However, he does not want his players to “relax” after the landmark win over Bayern and wants to beat United.
“We enjoyed Wednesday a lot but I’m not changing my mind or perspective,” Emery said. “I have ambition in this club since I arrived here.
“Today is the same. It is to be demanding every match, be demanding even if you achieve some objective before you were planning.
“We are getting a lot of success sooner than I was thinking. Now my expectation is to keep it.
“The example I have is to be demanding and don’t relax because we are being. This is my point of view I want to control with the players and the club.
“How I am pushing the players and how we can be consistent in the Premier League. Fantastic day on Wednesday, but now I will want to win on Sunday.”
Emery did offer some backing to Ten Hag, calling his counterpart a “winner” and reminding everyone that he has won the last four matches against the Spaniard’s Villa side.
“I respect him a lot, I have to because he beat me more than I beat him,” he said.
“He is a winner, last year they won the FA Cup. He is a very good coach, of course the demands there are huge, to get a lot of objectives. He is doing a process.
“They are a winning team, they have an experienced coach, it’s usually a winning club and they are still being winners.
“They are not getting consistently good results but they can exploit their capacity to put in a huge performance.
“I will respect them and I will prepare the match more than I did against Bayern Munich.”
Leon Bailey is a doubt with a hamstring injury while Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey came off against Bayern and will be assessed.
