Amadou: Villa boss has made me better player

AMADOU Onana admits that Unai Emery has improved aspects of his game he never thought possible before joining Aston Villa.

- JOHN TOWNLEY

The Belgian has had a stop-start first campaign at Villa following his £50m transfer from Everton last July.

He scored three goals in the club's first three away matches against West Ham, Leicester City, and Young Boys, but injury stunted his progress from November to March, before featuring in all of Villa’s last eight league games.

In that period, Onana has started four times, and Emery’s side have won seven games, keeping five clean sheets too.

Having suffered a late defeat at Manchester City last month, Villa have responded by winning three on the bounce against Fulham, Bournemouth, and Tottenham last time out.

Onana played instead of the injured Youri Tielemans for the second successive game, after arguably putting in his best display in claret and blue against Bournemouth last weekend.

The victory over Spurs lifted Villa into the Champions League positions before Man City take on Bournemouth tomorrow night.

“The job's not done yet,” Onana said ahead of the final weekend of the campaign. “Obviously, we knew that we needed a win at Villa Park. We've been really strong at home so we were willing to come out and give our best.