Unai Emery has been looking ahead to Aston Villa’s game with Manchester City on Wednesday – and he was adamant that one man at the Etihad is simply the best.
City hosts the Villans and are looking to get back to winning ways after dropping points against Arsenal on Sunday.
City, of course, lost the reverse fixture at Villa Park, and will perhaps be looking to exact revenge.
With Liverpool now three points ahead of City in the Premier League, it is really important for Pep Guardiola‘s side to respond. Potentially, City may need to be perfect between now and the end of the season.
Villa will provide a stern challenge, but Emery knows he is facing an incredible manager in Pep. And for him, no one comes close to his fellow countryman…
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery declares Pep Guardiola the best manager in the world ahead of Manchester City clash
City fans are hoping to see a much improved performance on Wednesday night against Villa.
It was a poor display against Arsenal on Sunday, although the Gunners do deserve some credit for the way they totally restricted City.
It remains to be seen if Emery will try to follow Arsenal’s blueprint, but hopefully Pep will have a plan for that in case they do.
Pep will undoubtedly have been hard at work since the draw with Arsenal, and you would not put it past him to come up with something brilliant.
After all, he is the best manager in the world, which is something Emery was keen to point out today.
He said (avfc.co.uk): “He is the best coach in the world, for me. Analysing him in Spain, analysing him here in England, he’s a brilliant coach, a genius coach.
“He’s very, very competitive. The coach is a lot of things to be the best coach. You have to control a lot of things more than tactically, even being humble as a person and the management of the players in everything.
“He’s shown, in my opinion, that he’s the best. I always have a challenge with other coaches, and even when I was with Guardiola in Spain, beating them or not beating them to get better myself.”
Pep has difficult task on Wednesday
It is nice to hear such praise from Emery for Pep and it’s clear the Villa boss respects his compatriot massively.
£378,000-a-week man Pep will require all of his brilliance to get one over on Emery, who has been proving himself as one of the top managers in the game this season.
He’s done an amazing job at Villa, and has ambitions of getting the club into the Champions League. He will want to stave off Tottenham Hotspur, who are just three points behind with a game in hand.
It will be very interesting to see what kind of game plan he comes to the Etihad with. If he tries to play the same way as Arsenal, then hopefully City will have more luck breaching their defence than the Gunners’.