Press conference

'We must control their players and tactical ideas'

Unai Emery's first win as our head coach was against West Ham United back in August, but it's fair to say it was a game that could have gone either way.

Our head coach comes face to face with Manuel Pellegrini again on Saturday, and expects a searching tactical test from his opposite number.

"He’s a very good coach, with a lot of experience," Emery said. "He was the coach at Villarreal and Real Madrid when I was at Valencia. We know each other very well.

"I know he needs time to create his idea with the team. I think they are improving and they also have good individual players with quality, like Anderson, like Arnautovic - who are very good players.

"Usually [Pellegrini has] very offensive teams. They usually play matches with a balance tactically but above all with technical, offensive players.

"I know that Saturday will be a difficult match because we need to impose our ideas but also for 90 minutes, we need to control their players and their tactical ideas. The respect for us to them is very, very big."