Emery previews United test

Unai Emery is excited by the challenge of taking his Aston Villa side to face Manchester United on Boxing Day.

After Nicolò Zaniolo scored an injury-time equalizer in Friday night’s 1-1 draw against Sheffield United, Villa will be visiting Old Trafford.

The Villans have only lost once in their previous 14 games and are undefeated in seven Premier League contests.

Tuesday marks halfway through the league season, and Emery’s Villa will be visiting Manchester, where they are presently third in the standings with 39 points from 18 games.

When questioned about Villa’s status heading into the encounter on Boxing Day, Emery responded, “The Premier League after 38 matches is deserving for each team’s position.”

“We are now in match number 18, and on Tuesday, match number 19, the first half of the season, will conclude in Manchester. We also have high standards.

“We are happy. I am proud of our work, our way, with our supporters and the players.

“But I want to finish on Tuesday trying to face Manchester United, really, how we can face them being in this moment better than them in the table.

“They are contenders to be in the top seven, top four teams more than us.

“Tuesday is a very good match for us how we can face them, how we are with them until match 19, how we are facing the teams who are contenders more than us in the table to be there.

“For example, we played in Newcastle and we lost, we played in Liverpool and we lost, we played in Tottenham and we won, we played in Chelsea and we won.

“A lot of matches against the top seven teams/contenders in the table we played at home – Brighton, Manchester City and Arsenal.

“Now we are going to face again away and away is always the challenge more than at home, usually it’s more difficult.”

Villa will be without Matty Cash at United after he picked up his fifth booking of the season against the Blades, incurring an automatic one-match suspension.

Cash joins Boubacar Kamara on the sidelines as the midfielder serves the second game of his three-match ban for the red card received in the 2-1 triumph at Brentford.

And head coach Emery will also assess influential centre-back Pau Torres ahead of the eagerly-anticipated encounter.

“I think Pau Torres is difficult, but he’s getting better,” said Emery, speaking after Friday night’s draw.

We’ll wait as there are still four days until our match in Manchester, even though it’s not a major injury.

“Kamara is out following his red card; Cash receives a yellow card and is out as well.

“I believe the players we had here will essentially be the same players when Cash is not present on Tuesday.

And perhaps we could include Pau Torres in the squad.

If not, though, I’m satisfied with the guys we now have available to play. We just need to work hard to get the best out of the players in our team and develop their abilities. They also need to be prepared.

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Emery previews United test

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