Aston Villa have enjoyed a fine start to the season, winning four of their five league games as well as winning their Champions League and Carabao Cup fixtures.
Unai Emery is a perfectionist and so the 2-0 home defeat against Arsenal will frustrate him but the Aston Villa boss must be incredibly pleased with how his side have started the new campaign.
Aston Villa face newly-promoted Ipswich Town on Sunday afternoon and Emery will again be satisfied with nothing short of three points whilst accepting it will been tricky away fixture.
Should Villa win they will leapfrog both Arsenal and Manchester City to go second in the Premier League and level on points with Liverpool at the top of the league.
If anyone expected a drop-off from last season given the increased workload and other sides in the top flight improving it has certainly not happened yet, but Emery knows his side still need to do one thing to improve.
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Aston Villa must secure first Premier League clean sheet against Ipswich Town
Villa kept a clean sheet in their first Champions League fixture in 41 years as they beat Young Boys 3-0, but that remains the cub’s only shutout of the season so far.
Despite the fact his side have shown real fight to comeback to beat West Ham United, Everton and Wolves this season, Emery will know the number of goals Villa are currently conceding will catch up with them eventually.
Therefore, as well as another win, Emery would love it if Villa could keep their first Premier League clean sheet of the season away at an Ipswich side yet to win a game since promotion.
The fact Ipswich have scored just three goals their five top flight matches so far should give Villa confidence they can finally achieve this feat; especially given only Southampton have scored fewer goals in the Premier League this season.
Unai Emery will want to wrap up early win against Ipswich ahead of Bayern Munich
Whilst there are no easy games in the Premier League, Emery will hope Villa can get the job done early against Ipswich.
This is because the Spanish coach will have an eye on the huge Villa Park clash against Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday where Villa will have to be at their absolute best to take anything from the game.
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Bayern won their opening game of the Champions League 9-2 against Dinamo Zagreb so Villa will need everyone fit and firing and Emery may well look to make early changes against Ipswich to preserve some of his key players.
This will of course mean Villa need to be in a commanding position to afford Emery this luxury and a clean sheet would really help with this.
