Unai Emery hoping friendly advice will help Aston Villa avoid Southampton slip-up
Unai Emery has revealed the friendly advice he is using to ensure Villa don’t slip up at Southampton.
Villa head to the Premier League’s basement dwellers on Saturday as big favourites to record a fourth consecutive win to maintain their challenge for a top-five finish.
The hosts have already seen their relegation confirmed and could yet go down as the worst team in Premier League history.
But Emery is taking nothing for granted and says he always uses words from one of his oldest friends in football, Pablo Rodriguez, to guard against complacency.
The pair played together in the Spanish Second Division, with Rodriguez now working as a scout at Villa.
Emery said: “Always he was telling me, not just here but before as well: ‘Remember Unai, those teams, now Southampton, they are going to win matches.’
"Okay, yes. The teams like Southampton in the bottom and now when they are relegated for the next year. But they are not going to lose every match.
"Still seven matches to play, they are not going to lose every match. They are going to win matches.
"And unless you are ready, it's against you. If you are not ready.”
Villa, who sit seventh in the table, two points outside the top five, have the chance to win four straight league matches for the first time in two years.
Emery has told his players not to waste their hard work getting back into the Champions League race.
Villa beat the Saints 1-0 at home in December and the boss said: "We won that match but it was very difficult to get it.
"Of course, in football it is to compete and maybe to compete is not always getting this level for some teams.
"But now they are free, they are going to play like they are. Good players, good position playing on the field.
"The last match they played at home, they drew against Crystal Palace but they were close to winning.”
