Unai Emery is confident Aston Villa are back on track after beating Bournemouth 4-0 to move within a point of the Premier League’s top four.
Villa failed to score in their first four league games this season but managed four in one afternoon to leapfrog the Cherries on goal difference.
Emiliano Buendia’s superb free-kick opened the scoring before Amadou Onana drilled in a second from 20 yards.
Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez stopped Antoine Semenyo’s second-half penalty before Ross Barkley and Donyell Malen came off the bench to round off the hosts’ fourth straight home league win.
Emery said: “(I am) happy. After a poor start we are progressively getting better.
“We were sending messages inside to increase our demands, consistency and working every day. A fantastic month, getting points and getting a good balance. Now we are going to rest but happy about getting a good balance.
“We wanted to improve, we wanted to build up the team and now how we did over the last month, even before the last break with points against Everton and Sunderland, we have been playing in a higher level. I’m so happy.”
Emery believes his side’s performance against Bournemouth has set a benchmark.
“The players need to play the way we did today,” the Villa manager added.
“Getting the challenges and duels, being brave and the high press, we did fantastic.”
Adam Smith was taken off in the ninth minute following a head clash with Tyler Adams which forced Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola to tweak his game plan early.
But the Spaniard does not want to use that as an excuse and admitted the Villa were the better side.
“It’s a deserved win for Villa,” he said. “Two different halves from our side, I’m a bit worried about the first half because it is coming after a (Manchester) City game where we were not at our level so that’s two games.
“I think the collision of Adam and Tyler we had to make a sub, but we cannot use this as an excuse. They were much better than us, more aggressive, pressing us well and deservedly went 2-0 up at half time.
“After half-time, the second 45 was much better but we had the chances, have the penalty, hit the post, didn’t take them. That could have changed the game at 2-1.
“You want to win the last game before an international break because its two weeks for the next match, to finish with this feeling is not good but we cannot change it. We have to prepare better for West Ham.”
