Unai Emery hails ‘amazing’ Aston Villa captain John McGinn after Everton rout

Posted Monday, August 21, 2023 by PA

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery saluted skipper John McGinn after his side brushed aside Everton 4-0 for their first Premier League win of the season.

McGinn slammed home Leon Bailey’s cross to give Villa a first-half lead before Douglas Luiz’s penalty and goals in the second period from Bailey and substitute Jhon Duran completed an easy victory.

Emery said of his captain: “I’m very happy for him because he scored. He doesn’t usually score a lot.

M⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️D. pic.twitter.com/wXuNs45LZZ
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) August 20, 2023

“He has to get into the box to get chances to score and he did that perfectly for the first goal, and his performance as well was very good today.

“He can play right side, left side, play inside. He’s very important for us. Last week he didn’t play well, but today was amazing.”

Villa bounced back in style in front of a Villa Park crowd of 41,694 following their 5-1 opening-day defeat at Newcastle and Emery stressed the importance of his players’ impressive response.

The former Valencia, Arsenal and Paris St Germain boss, who dedicated victory to injured players Tyrone Mings and Emi Buendia, added: “Always when we win we are happy.

Unai Emery hails ‘amazing’ Aston Villa captain John McGinn after Everton rout — Unai Emery paid tribute to injured Villa stars Tyrone Mongs and Emi Buendia (Nick Potts/PA)

“Today was very good, first match at home. Our supporters were brilliant. They connect here with us.

“Today I want to especially mention this victory for Emi Buendia and Tyrone Mings because we were remembering them before the match and trying to bring this victory for them.

“We were keeping a good balance for the 90 minutes, but of course I’m going to be very demanding and in some areas we can improve.

“Some things we didn’t do like I want, but the result, three points and of course after our result at Newcastle, it was very important to have this impact.”

Emery is expecting Philippe Coutinho to be out for up to three weeks. The Brazilian was withdrawn late on due to a hamstring injury after stepping off the bench.

Everton’s poor display was reflected by the departure of over half their travelling fans before the final whistle and compounded by injuries to the luckless Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Alex Iwobi.

Boss Sean Dyche said: “Sometimes, the weirdest thing as a manager, is you have to accept a collective down day. It was a collective down day.

“I can’t even pick a player, apart from Dobbo (Lewis Dobbin), who’s had an excellent pre-season and Arnaut Danjuma is getting fitter and sharper.

“Other than that, there was hardly a player you could name who was anywhere near what we can do.

“Collective down days do come along. They (Villa) probably had it in reverse. After their result last weekend, they played really well today.”

Dyche said Calvert-Lewin had blurred vision after a first-half clash of heads with Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez and will have tests, while Iwobi strained a hamstring.