An Ollie Watkins header earned the round of 16 first-leg win in France on Thursday.
“Firstly, I’m thankful for our supporters – over 2,500 supporters here with us,” declared Emery afterwards.
“This is really very important how they are following us and supporting us, and helping in everything. We felt that today.
“We respect this competition, because we know the difficulties of each match: in Europe, away, and how it is for the English teams, like yesterday in the Champions League, how they were struggling.
“The Premier League is a strong league, and when we are playing away in other countries, they have one challenge more than another challenge they can have.
“We played very seriously. We were always organised, and we played trying to defend strongly, trying to feel comfortable defending as well, and trying to get some transition with the ball and to dominate with the ball, and we did it.”
On the performance, Emery was satisfied.
“We didn't create a lot of chances, but some clear chances to score. I'm happy with how the players responded to the game plan we did and how we are respecting and understanding the difficulties we can have, in case we are not playing seriously,” he said.
“After it, we need their skills and the capacity to do something, adding for the team individually, or collectively, and we must add numbers from the players, like today with Watkins. We need to add numbers with Morgan, with Sancho, with Leon Bailey, with Buendía, with the midfielders.
“I am happy but we know in the dressing room that it’s the first leg, and this result, one nil, is good, but we are going to play another 90 minutes, respecting them like we did today to play with this result.”