By John Townley

Copyright birminghammail

Unai Emery suggests that it is business as usual at Aston Villa following Monchi’s departure and the swift arrival of Roberto Olabe. Olabe was announced as Monchi’s successor on Tuesday night, after Monchi informed the club of his wish to return home and end his time at Villa Park. “He was very good, but after two years he needed to have another chapter in his career,” Emery said. “Mutual agreement with the club. I wish him the best with his new chapter. “We reacted quickly to get one person who I know personally. I have a lot of confidence with Roberto Olabe and he is going to help us.” Emery added: “It was something we working on, knowing about while speaking with Monchi. After the transfer window had finished we were speaking about our relationship here, working with the club and working together. “Then, we decided with the club and him, and with Roberto as well, we decided to do a normal transition.” There had been some loose speculation that Emery’s power base was being diminished by Monchi’s exit, though those suggestions were far from true, especially once his replacement was confirmed. Olabe appointed Emery as Almeria manager in 2006 and also made his senior debut at Real Sociedad alongside him in 1995. Asked if he is more committed than ever to Villa, Emery laughed and said: “More speculation? I know it’s a different speculation. The reality is we drew and in the league we are not performing well. “We have to work and work hard. With the players I have meetings after the game and talk about how we want to be, tactically and with the demands we have. We are excited to play again in Europe and we will then speak about Fulham in the league. “We are starting the season with the problems we had, the problems before, with the transfer window. Some players joined us late. We are trying to recover our performance. “More than the result, I think we’re improving. It’s not enough as we haven’t achieved the victories. Tomorrow again is our challenge to show who we are. Palace is the only game I think we were emotionally very poor, we lost due to circumstances. “Now we are a different team, our emotions and our emotional moments are becoming better. I will want to show how we’ve improved in everything.” Every day, the BirminghamLive football desk strive to deliver all manner of news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Aston Villa content. Our dedicated reporter John Townley – who you can follow on X by clicking here – follows Villa home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between. So much happens day to day and sometimes you can struggle to keep on top of the very latest updates as and when they occur – that’s why we have produced a daily newsletter which you can sign up to, for free, and which means you’ll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox. Sign up to the Villa newsletter here . You can also get all your favourite content from BirminghamLive’s Villa team on WhatsApp. Click here to sign up for breaking updates about the biggest stories in and around the club. If you prefer reading our Villa stories on your phone, consider downloading the BirminghamLive app, in which you can personalise the content you see by selecting Villa as one of your designated topics. You can get it from Apple here and for Android here . Our weekly Aston Villa podcast, Claret And Blue, is also available to watch and listen on all major streaming services. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel here , while you can access the podcast on Spotify here and via Apple here .