Unai Emery Newcastle United press conference – Explains difference last season between the 2 teams | OneFootball

The Unai Emery Newcastle United press conference has taken place.

The Aston Villa manager meeting journalists on Friday.

Unai Emery speaking ahead of Saturday’s match at Villa Park.

The two clubs only separated by goal difference at the end of last season.

Unai Emery speaking ahead of the first match of the season:

“We are excited and hopefully tomorrow we will show it in Villa Park.

“I like to start playing with our supporters, and with the atmosphere we were creating when we were winning at Villa Park was fantastic.

“I think tomorrow will be the same.

“Newcastle – what a game to enjoy, to prepare, to play, and to try to do our best.”

“It will be very difficult.

“They have a very good structure tactically and are strong with individual players.

“Collectively, they are such a strong team offensively and defensively to get a lot of duels.

“Our experiences playing against them in three years, winning and losing, hopefully tomorrow at home we can add our supporters pushing us.

“We have to be intelligent, we have to try to adapt to them tactically and try to win duels.

“Last year, we finished with 66 points and they finished with 66 points in 38 matches.

“We’re starting again now.

“They’re in the Champions League and we are in the Europa League because the goal difference was so tight.

“Conceding and scoring is the difference, and they did it.

“Hopefully we can start again, competing against them, showing our power and capacity with our performance in our tactical idea and individual skills.”

Unai Emery on injuries and availability for this match against Newcastle United, revealing three players unavailable:

“Not available: Emiliano Martínez, suspended, Andrés García is injured, and Ross Barkley is not match fit.”

Unai Emery on ambitions for 2025/26:

“When I arrived here my objective was – and still is – to win a trophy. If we are playing in Europe we have one option more.

“For that reason, playing in Europe is very important because we can have another way to compete, to get a trophy, to be a contender, and play more matches. I’m always thinking playing matches against very good teams, you can improve more and gain more prestige.

“I’m starting with the same objective. Four competitions: Premier League is the first one, Europa League is the second one, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

“In those competitions, we have to try to do our best. To win a trophy is next step forward I want to do after playing in Europe. I can’t refuse that the overall objective I have is to play again in Europe, even in front of one trophy. We can share both and try to get both, but the next year I want to play again in Europe.”