"No excuses," said Unai Emery.
The Aston Villa head coach was talking about his team's form amid Villa Park's rebuild.
He had already turned the air blue when describing their defeat to Nottingham Forest last month.
It was a rare moment of candour from the Spaniard with Villa yet to win at home this season after Saturday's 2-2 draw with Brentford.
The North Stand is a shell and currently closed for building work as the club increases the stadium's capacity to over 50,000.
It is part of the club's plan to help Villa bridge the financial gap in the Premier League, but they may have to endure some short-term pain for long-term gain.
Fenerbahce visit on Wednesday as Champions League football returns to Villa Park.
With them is Marcos Asensio, who scored eight goals for Emery's men during a successful loan from Paris St-Germain in 2025 - and a reminder of the swagger Villa used to have at home.
He scored in Saturday's 3-0 win over Rizespor, with Fenerbahce netting 11 goals in their last two games, including an 8-0 victory against Turkish Super Lig strugglers Eyupspor.
That could present a problem for a Villa defence that has kept just one clean sheet this season and been increasingly fallible at home, something Emery knows must improve regardless of the rebuild.
"Our handicap is less supporters for the situation, but the club decided it. It is something to improve us for the future," said the Spaniard.
"We must try to be together and without 7,000 supporters we must push everyone. We must play better football, compete better, be more focused. Those are more important than the stand.
"We are realistic with how we are working, improving. The things are not [good] enough yet, a lot of conversations with the team, meetings, video, practising and each match trying to show and improve."
Villa, though, have lost just once at home in Europe under Emery - against Olympiacos in the Europa Conference League semi final in 2024 - and he ended their wait for silverware by lifting the Europa League in May.
"Over the last few years our home form has been amazing, especially in Europe," said defender Matty Cash. "We need to get back to that.
"I don't want to sound like I am making excuses, because obviously we have to deal with the circumstances and it is really good to make the stand bigger and the stadium bigger, but it is obviously different.
"I am not going to sit here and lie and say it isn't but you have to deal with the circumstances. You can't make excuses. You have to play what is in front of you. When it is done it will be amazing but yeah, at the moment it is a bit different."
From invincible to insecure
Champions Arsenal and Forest have already claimed three points at Villa Park this season, with unbeaten Brentford taking a point.
Nicolas Jackson's equalising goal against the Bees was the first Villa had scored in front of the skeleton that was their North Stand this season.
Yet Villa's home struggles are not new. Since the turn of the year they have lost the aura of invincibility which Emery has brought since his arrival almost four years ago.
Between November 2022 and January 2026, they lost just eight of 61 home Premier League games, winning 44 of them.
That included 15 straight wins between March 2023 and December 2023.
They also went 12 months unbeaten in the top flight between August 2024 and August 2025, but since the turn of the year Villa have been fragile at home in comparison.
Defeats by Everton, Brentford, Chelsea and Tottenham threatened their top-four place last season, with Villa needing late goals to earn a draw against Leeds and claim victories against Brighton and Sunderland.
That has continued this season with Villa Park's capacity down to around 37,000 in the void left by the North Stand, something Brentford boss Keith Andrews picked up on, saying he hated playing when one stand was missing.
Villa could still make light of it in Europe, though, with Viking also travelling to Birmingham in the league phase on 21 October.
After an opening win at Club Brugge, successive victories would put them on course for qualification before November, despite their home issues.
"It is a massive test against a good team but we need to be winning these games," added Cash.
"That is the bar we have set for ourselves. Hopefully we can make it loud - three-stand loud."