Aston Villa boss Unai Emery spoke with the press ahead of his side's Premier League trip to Newcastle

Unai Emery sat down with the media at Bodymoor Heath on Friday afternoon ahead of Aston Villa’s trip to Newcastle United.

His side have the opportunity to claim back-to-back away league wins at St James’ Park after beating Tottenham before the international break. Villa head into the game high on confidence after claiming their first home win of the season against Fenerbahce, beating them 6-0.

Here is every word Emery said to the press ahead of Villa's match in Tyneside…

Will Barkley and Hemmings train today?

"Ross we will see this afternoon. He played 85 minutes and had some pain . We will check this afternoon. And George is close to joining us. Maybe he joins this afternoon but we will decide for tomorrow."

Do you still need to improve defensively?

"It was a phrase from John Toshack at Sociedad when he was there. He was using a lot one phrase, ‘don’t avoid the trees not permitting you to see the forest’. This is fantastic for this situation. We have a lot to improve and build our structure."

Off the pitch, is the team spirit developing?

"The players are doing a huge effort each match to try to do their task in their demands. The first demand is from myself and with my coaches, how we can get our structure with the players we have in the idea of the team, reaching the level we got last season. Until now, we haven't done that, but we are actually improving. We can see positively that we can get the next challenges in front of us that we have.

"It’s good news how some players are coming back from injury and others are getting more fit. Some are understanding more tactically how we want to work. We are building the team in the same way that we did before in the last years. But we have the difficult period to bring in new and young players.

"The results are very important and they are coming better. We lost to Forest at home, but after it, we won against Tottenham and drew to Brentford. It was not enough, but we improved. We started the Champions League very well. We can justify that we are improving. We are still in a difficult period, working hard and improving things."

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Despite all the changes, how much are you enjoying this season?

"More than in the last year even. We are building a team in a successful way in the first year, but we did not change so much the squad. We had a lot of challenges and I was enjoying those good performances, but this year especially more because we changed more than normal.

"We have a lot of players to understand everything, connecting with their skills and style of play to be strong and be closer to winning. How we have won against Fenerbahce, but repeating at the beginning of the press conference, we have a lot of work to do and to improve."

How well had Manzambi adapted?

"His adaptation is going quick. There are still things to understand how we want to do in the match, like with duels and tactically in the structure we have. He is adapting quickly and doing things positively for the team and our idea. He is versatile and he can drive, get to the box, getting assists and scoring goals.

"He is giving what we need defensively, but not completely as he can improve. We want to achieve of him something like we had with Morgan Rogers. It is clear that they are similar but they have their own characteristics as a player. Both players are mature. He likes football and he is responsible. He is a good professional during the process here and in his life. It is a good example of the mentality that we need like he is."

How important is it to get results after Champions League games?

"The rotation is coming when the players are ready to play in our demands. We did some changes on Wednesday after the game on Saturday. The players have responded and this is a step forward, clearly. How I am going to decide for tomorrow is maybe going in the same way. We played on Wednesday and the demands were high, so maybe some players are tired, not injured. After training, I will clarify myself which players are ready tomorrow, not at 80 per cent but 100 per cent."

How similar are Newcastle as a club to Villa in what challenges you face?

"They had some changes like us, but they signed very good players as well. Especially in the middle because of who left, Bruno and Tonali, maybe they can think different. Nico Gonzalez can replace them with the quality he has. They have had injuries more than normal and are recovering players, so Newcastle in their home is always very difficult.

"They will press with supporters playing them, getting individual duels and being very demanding to try to beat us. For us, we must be ready to compete strongly, strongly and compact, focusing 100 per cent on the task. We need players off the bench ready to play. It is not changing how difficult the Premier League is.

"Even when we progress, we have a lack of points and consistency that we need to get. Tomorrow is a huge challenge and we are in the bottom of the league. It is not pressure for us; our ambition is to perform in the top positions. We have a lack of points, but we are ambitious to get our challenges to get there, being a contender at the top."