Unai Emery praised Johan Manzambi after his goal helped Aston Villa claim a 1-0 win over Newcastle at St. James’ Park.
The Switzerland midfielder had looked set to join the Magpies over the summer before eventually signing for Villa and his goal was the difference on Tyneside.
João Gomes edged towards the box to curl a cross in for Manzambi, who easily nodded past Lukáš Horníček in the 36th minute.
It takes his tally to two Premier League goals this season and comes only three days after scoring in Villa’s 6-0 win over Fenerbahçe in the Champions League.
Speaking about Manzambi, Emery said: “He’s a good guy, he’s very professional, he loves, with passion football. He wants to play in the way we are and the demand we have.
“He decided to join us in summer because he understood here he can progress, he can as well have his own challenges and quality challenges to improving in his career as a player.”
Emery was also pleased with his side’s display to secure three points at St. James’ Park, which he described as a “difficult scenario” to play in.
Victory lifts Villa into 12th in the table and extends their unbeaten run in all competitions to five games.
“A tough match, to play Newcastle in their stadium is a very difficult scenario to achieve points,” Emery added.
“We prepared the game, we planned a very important three points to play, focus in everything we needed. Tactically, offensively very good. Set-pieces, defensively very good. In transition we had very good chances to score and we scored.
“Very good how we have extended after our win at Tottenham the same mentality away.”
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The three points on Tyneside also marked Emery’s 100th win in the Premier League from his time in charge of both Arsenal and Villa.
Speaking about his milestone moment, Emery said: “Hopefully I can play another 100 and win! But in football you are winning or you aren’t.”
Newcastle boss Matthias Jaissle expressed his frustrations as they slipped to back-to-back Premier League defeats.
The Magpies enjoyed the bulk of possession and had second-half chances through Sven Botman and Yoane Wissa, but struggled to find the target.
“We are frustrated with the result. We wanted to give our fans here at home a better one,” Jaissle said.
“When you go through the match I think the response was there, especially until we conceded the first goal.
“We dominated the game, we controlled it without being constantly in the opposition box, this is something we need to work on. The team was a bit shaken after the goal we conceded.
“When the lads came out in the second half, I think straight away you felt that energy, that belief again that today at least we want to go for the draw, if not for the win.
“The efficiency in the opposition box was then missing, that’s clearly something we need to work on.
“Between the two boxes everything was quite solid against a strong opponent. But in the final third we were lacking the decision making today, our decision making was not good enough to be even more efficient and to create even more chances.
“The few chances, which should be also enough to score, we didn’t use today.”
