Unai Emery Newcastle United press conference – On respect, competition and Eddie Howe | OneFootball

The Unai Emery Newcastle United press conference has taken place.

The Aston Villa manager meeting journalists on Tuesday afternoon.

Unai Emery speaking ahead of Thursday afternoon’s match at St James’ Park.

The two sides separated by just two points, Eddie Howe’s side set to overtake the visitors if getting a home win on Boxing Day.

“They are now in top form.

“They played Champions League two years ago.

“The objective is clear for them to be in Europe.

“It will be a difficult game.”

Unai Emery asked if Newcastle United are Villa’s main rivals for Champions League qualification:

“We are in a good balance in the table but we are a long way from what we want to do.

“Newcastle United are behind us by two points but we are not now in the top four.

“We are only facing them thinking they are our opponent now.”

Unai Emery asked about Eddie Howe and how he is doing at St James’ Park:

“He was doing a fantastic job at Bournemouth.

“His Newcastle United team is very dynamic, they like to play aggressively in attack.

“They like to do a lot of duels on the field with the players man to man.

“They beat us last year two times and I respect him a lot.”

Unai Emery asked about his midfield options:

“We are building a team.

“Amadou Onana is getting better.

“Boubacar Kamara is coming back really, really strong and feeling comfortable after injury.

“We have to try to use our players with the combinations we can have.