“Want players to be best in world” – Unai Emery explains his philosophy of having ‘competitive mentality’ at Aston Villa

Unai Emery took charge at Aston Villa in November 2022 and has been instrumental in their rise since then. He’s helped the Villans qualify for the Champions League for the first time in over four decades.

Aston Villa have won both their Champions League matches this season, including a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich at Villa Park.

RTVE interviewed Emery, who states Aston Villa should be successful in regularly securing victories against top teams.

On Aston Villa beating Bayern win, he said: “A very special moment, [but wants it to be] a regular occurrence.”

Emery has the support of both managing director Monchi and sporting director Damian Vidagany at Aston Villa. The former Arsenal manager says everyone at the club are going forward in the same direction.

“The club and we share the same vision. I’m the head of a project that goes from my figure as manager, with Damia, Monchi, and all the technicians in which we try to cover everything from our position and from a vision that we share, but I am the one who is putting the pieces in place a little bit,” Emery explained.

‘We can combine the objectives of being able to have challenges in Europe with the demands of the Premier League.”

The Birmingham club are currently fifth in the table, level on points with fourth placed Chelsea and four behind league leaders Liverpool.

RTVE say Emery applies ‘competitive mentality’ to his teams, and they point this out after he explained his philosophy.

“You start to win a game, you start to win a squad when you want your players to be the best in the world [in the search for that point of competitiveness] where you are capable of beating a team that is better than you and where you are capable of not allowing yourself to be surprised by a team that is inferior to you,” he added.