Highlights: Cherki hits late winner to help Man City overcome Nottingham Forest
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Their 11th straight win in all competitions leaves Aston Villa in third place, seven points clear of Liverpool in fourth, and 10 ahead of Chelsea in fifth. They are also just one point behind second-placed Manchester City, and three points behind Arsenal, who lead the way.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the win, Watkins said: “(It was) an amazing win. For me personally, to come on and score two goals is a great feeling – but to keep up this run and come here, a tough place, and beat Chelsea is amazing.”
Watkins also praised Emery for his tactical tweaks to find a way through Chelsea’s backline, explaining: “He changed it because Chelsea were going man for man, but they had the extra centre-back when we were going long.
“When I came on in the second half, he brought on Jadon Sancho and Morgan Rogers on the wing and put Youri Tielemans in the No. 10 – so we had an extra man in there. He’s a tactical genius.”
With Villa now approaching the New Year in the top three, Watkins believes that they are a team capable of intimidating others in the league.
He added: “I feel like teams are worried about us, even if we may not play the prettiest football at times. We’re taking each game as it comes and focusing on ourselves really.
“There’s a lot of talk about us and people asking if we can win the title, but it’s a long way away. We’re just focusing on the next game.”
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Slot: Wirtz’ first Liverpool goal ‘a relief’ but ‘not a surprise’
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Emery: We will ‘compete strongly’ against Arsenal
Villa boss Emery is set to meet his former club Arsenal on Tuesday evening.
If his team win their 12th consecutive match, they would go level on points with Mikel Arteta’s side.
The Spaniard said that the side would go there aiming to hold their own, but he was not getting ahead of himself with his ambitions.
He told the BBC: “We are playing against Arsenal and our mentality is to compete strongly. And we are not going to speak about our target in the league until we are in (match week) 34, because there are teams contending with huge power to get points like Liverpool, like Chelsea, and they are keeping (in contention) more than us to be there.
“Of course we are performing very well, we are winning matches in a row, we are competing fantastically. We competed in the first half fantastically and we were struggling. But in the second half, more or less like this season, we are progressively getting better and being humble.”
He denied that he thought his team were in the race for the Premier League, saying: “No, 38 matches. If it finishes tomorrow, then this match against Arsenal is (winning) the league. There are still another 20 matches to play.”
