Aston Villa manager Unai Emery sat down with the press before taking on Viking FK in the Champions League

Unai Emery spoke to the media ahead of Aston Villa’s third Champions League match of the season, against Viking FK.

Villa are targeting a third successive victory after previous wins against Club Brugge and Fenerbahce. They come into the match on the back of a 1-0 win at Newcastle United in the Premier League.

Here’s what Emery said to the press at Bodymoor Heath…

Can we get an injury update?

“We are accepting all the injuries we had before. So many players we had injured in our process, and we still have some, like Onana for a long time, like Matteo, which is more or less two months.

“He is coming back and joining us, Ian Maatsen. He joined us, and he is training with us this week. Manzambi has a small injury. He is going to not be available for tomorrow, ruled out. Aaron Wan-Bissaka has an injury as well. More or less, he will be out for three or four weeks.

“We have enough players. It is not an excuse. Tomorrow we will find a solution in case we need to. We need to get our performance collectively and individually in each position.”

What are Viking’s main threat?

“Champions League. Every team that plays in the Champions League deserves it, and they have their collective and individual issues as a team. They drew to Bayern Munich last week and lost to Stuttgart. They are with Bodo/Glimt at the top of the league. Bodo is a successful team in Europe, performing well and getting good results and beating important teams.

“Viking is a new team as well, with the capacity to draw against Bayern. They competed against Stuttgart too. This is the Champions League, and we have six points, which is amazing. Keeping the same way we are in is the challenge.”

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Is Buendia close to signing a new contract?

“I am so happy with him. I think today is not the day to answer this question. You surprised me! I am so happy with him. But today we are speaking about his contract extension? Why this question? Tomorrow, I expect us to play a fantastic game.”

Do you have to be patient with Kamara after his long injury?

“He was so, so unlucky. He had two very bad injuries. He came back strongly the first time. Now the second time he is getting his fitness progressively. He has improved a lot of things. I am expecting again the best Bouba, with his qualities, maturity and his intelligence.

“He is a good professional, so he has a lot of positive things to improve and to get his best for the next weeks, months, years, hopefully with us in his career.”

Is Manzambi one of the first names on the team sheet when he is fit?

“Yes, but we are building the team, and we are trying to set our standards and demands so high, understanding as well how we want to do that in our structure. He is in the process of learning and adapting.

“He is scoring goals and playing well. He has a lot of things to work to improve. It is a process, and in football, to go up, up, up, up every day is very difficult. We must be patient and happy.

"The message is respect. Respect the competition, respect Europe and the difficulty of getting to the position we are now. To keep it for the next matches. To be in the top eight we are not favourites, indeed we are not contenders.

"But in case we are getting points, like we did, we can have our opportunity to be there. The last two years we achieved it in the Champions League and Europa League. But now a lot of teams, the favourites, they are trying to avoid the mistake they made two years ago.

"One example back then, because they weren’t in the top-eight, Manchester City played Real Madrid and one of those went out. This is the importance for them and for us as well to try and be in the top-eight.

"Tomorrow we have a very good opportunity to try to play, to try to compete, to try to win and improve our position. The most important is how we can feel better at home with our supporters at Villa Park, with a good energy. Hopefully tomorrow we can again create a great atmosphere together."

What have you made of working with your new Norwegian set-piece coach?

"We have a set-piece coach working with us who is Norwegian. I am so happy with him. He was a player and I am trying to help and share with him all of my experience with set-pieces, trying to open his mind to fresh work, understand set-pieces in everything. Norway now in football is a country normally doing very good things, the clubs, national team and individual players and coaches.

"Pal (Fjelde) is a fantastic guy, a fantastic guy. He joined us in the summer and he is progressively working on our idea to build set-pieces and trying to get through it with good performances. I am so happy with him and we shared a lot of conversations and meetings. He is young but he has good experience from a player with set-pees and now as a coach/ he is a great professional and I hope we can do a lot of good things together."