Unai Emery calls for calm as Aston Villa switch focus to cup glory
Unai Emery has urged Villa to put their Premier League frustrations aside and focus on beating Cardiff in the FA Cup.
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Villa host the Bluebirds on Friday night in a fifth round tie, just 72 hours on from a chastening 4-1 defeat at Crystal Palace which left them sitting 10th in the top-flight.
The latter was the fourth league match in the space of 11 days for Emery’s men and the boss wants his players to quickly re-focus on the Cup, with a last-16 Champions League tie against Club Brugge also on the horizon.
Villa travel for the first leg in Belgium on Tuesday and Emery said: “We have two more competitions we are competing well in.
“We played lots of matches in a few days in the Premier League. We have to let the Premier League be in the corner and then have to manage our frustration.
“We have to be motivated and excited (for the other competitions). We have to keep going and move on. We have to be motivated."
The intense run of league fixtures over the past fortnight offered Villa the chance to put themselves firmly in the race for a top-five finish and likely qualification for next season's Champions League.
But a return of just five points over the four matches means they will have ground to make up over the run-in, while Emery appears no closer to fixing a leaky defence which has kept just three clean sheets all season. Goalkeeper Emi Martinez will be assessed after coming off at half-time in Tuesday’s match complaining of pain.
“We have to be frustrated, but our demands are increasing,” said Emery. “Through the Premier League we are trying to get our first objective of the season, but we are not being consistent and losing very good opportunities.”