Emery on team news, performances and facing Spurs

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (kick-off 12:30 BST). Here are the key lines from his news conference: Marco Asensio, Amadou Onana, Modou Cisse, Pau Torres, Ian Maatsen, Leon Goretzka and Brian Madjo are all out through injury and will not feature against Tottenham. He said their younger players - Ibrahim Mbaye, George Hemmings and Brian Madjo - "until now, have not been good enough in the Premier League". The Villa boss insisted the Premier League "is the most difficult league in the world" and that "the balance is very difficult for every team" when it comes to buying and selling players in order to compete in the top flight. On the games they have played so far: "We are performing differently for the demands and, for how, we are in our process. In the Premier League, we had a lack of good results, a lack of enough performance collectively and even individually, but we are lack of the process to build the team as well. Hopefully tomorrow, we'll watch the team improving." On facing Tottenham, who have yet to win or score a goal in the league: "Their potential is huge. They signed a lot of very good players, but they need time to get everything compact, and to achieve understanding their idea." Emery said he expects Spurs "to be in the top four", despite the difficult start they have had. He praised opposition boss Roberto de Zerbi: "A fantastic manager. He played fantastic football here and performed fantastic here with Brighton . He did a fantastic job before in Italy and Marseille. They [Spurs] are getting better. They compete fantastic, even losing against Liverpool ." Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news Got a question about Villa? Get in touch here and we'll seek answers from our experts [BBC]