On September 19th at 11:30 UTC(CEST), in the 5th round of the Premier League, Aston Villa will travel to face Tottenham. Villa manager Emery attended the pre-match press conference on Friday to provide updates on injuries and new player integration, and also commented on Tottenham, this round's opponent.

Updating Villa's personnel situation

We have too many injured players; it's hard to mention them all. Marez, Onana, Modou Séri, Pau Torres, Maatsen, Goretzka, and Majeed are all out. I think that's enough injured players. Other players are ready.

Regarding resilience

We have participated in different competitions, and our performance varies according to the different demands and the stage we are in. We won two games away against Coventry and Brugge, playing very well, but in the Premier League, we lacked ideal results and failed to show enough competitiveness, both collectively and individually. At the same time, we also lacked the process of building a cohesive team system. I hope to see the team improve tomorrow, continuously progress, and reach the level of play we need.

This week we have been discussing preseason preparation. For us, preseason preparation is actually still ongoing, because players like Manzambi have just returned from injury, João Gomes has just joined after suspension, and Goretzka and Majeed are currently unavailable. Therefore, throughout the preseason preparation phase, we could only basically train with last year's squad.

In addition, we also tried to develop some young players, such as George Hemmings and Majeed, but Majeed has been recovering from injury since the end of preseason. We are now in the integration process. Perhaps the personnel situation from a month ago would have been better, but this is our reality now.

Players must gradually understand our system. Wan-Bissaka needs to understand all our tactical requirements. He is building confidence by accumulating playing time and gradually getting to know our team, and the same applies to Manzambi. Ruggeri made his first start on Tuesday, and he will play again tomorrow. We need to see how he copes, how he understands everything, and how he adapts to the opponent's demands. We are currently in this process.

Of course, we must compete with our opponents and be prepared to perform well enough both individually and collectively to respond to the challenge. This is the test we face tomorrow. However, in this process, I remain optimistic and hope that everything goes smoothly as planned. Integrating injured players and new signings into the team and having them play together is a process we must go through.

Regarding the challenges faced

We are working hard to integrate different players into our system and philosophy, while also considering how each person performs on their debut. Manzambi is moving in this direction. Of course, the integration process is far from complete. When we signed players four, three, or two years ago, I remember that in Tielemans' first year, he needed to sit on the bench and gradually adapt to the game, understanding which position suited him better—sometimes playing as a number 10, sometimes in midfield.

Morgan Rogers also needed to fully understand everything about the team in his first six months at Villa. Of course, now we hope that new players can quickly show good performance—such as Manzambi, Ruggeri, Wan-Bissaka, and young players like Mbaye, Hemmings, and Majeed. Yes, we have such expectations, but we must also strive to compete and be patient while our Premier League results are not yet ideal.

Regarding this round's opponent, Tottenham

They are in a similar situation to us at the beginning of the season, but they have huge potential. They invested a lot of money in the summer window to sign many excellent players, but it also takes time for the whole team to integrate and truly understand and implement the coach's tactical philosophy.

Of course, De Zerbi is a very good coach. He led Brighton to play wonderful football and achieved extraordinary results. He also performed well when he coached Shakhtar Donetsk, in Italy, and at Marseille.

Now I can see that Tottenham are in the integration process. Of course, they are getting better and better, performing very well on the pitch. Even though they lost to Liverpool in the League Cup midweek, Tottenham showed strong competitiveness.

Tottenham are now gradually beginning to integrate the players who joined later—Sarr, Porro, Marmoush—but their tactical philosophy and style of play continue to be optimized by De Zerbi. Tomorrow's game will be a huge challenge for us. We need to think about how to respond, how to play well within our system, how to maintain a compact formation, how to play with confidence, and how to compete with them in a tough match.

Of course, this places very high demands on our defense, and at the same time, we must strive to take the initiative and control the rhythm of the game when we have possession. This is the real challenge. As for Tottenham, I expect them to finish in the top four.

Regarding new goalkeeper Emi Martinez

Some players need time to adapt to us, while others integrate into the team quickly. One of the fast integrators is Emi Martinez. He quickly understands how we want to organize our offense, how the goalkeeper participates in the attack, including the first phase and second phase of play, and how to use our existing players to exert his abilities through accurate long passes to find space behind the opponent's defense. This is what we are working on with him, and he actually gives us confidence. Within our system and philosophy, he releases the ball quickly and performs very well.

Regarding the international break

This international break is too long because it lasts three weeks. I really don't like having to wait three weeks after tomorrow to play again, but we have to accept reality.

During this period, we cannot train and integrate with the players we want to. For example, Manzambi has just played the first two games for us, and tomorrow will be the third, but then he will go to play for the national team. When he returns, we will have to help him re-integrate into our system, and his rhythm might be disrupted as a result. But that's how it is—we don't want to use the international break as an excuse. We will arrange corresponding training according to the available players, and those participating in the national team will naturally go and play.

So tomorrow's game is crucial for us, because we are currently lacking points. Of course, we will continue our integration process, stay focused, take every game and competition seriously, give our all every week, and strive to help players adapt better to our tactical system.

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