Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was far from pleased with his side’s performance in the first half against Wolves, but praised their response in the second, as we eventually prevailed 3-1 at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon.
Matheus Cunha put the visitors ahead after 25 minutes, as he pounced on a mistake and gave them a deserved lead as we were poor in the opening 45 minutes, having failed to register a single shot on target, while we also looked vulnerable defensively and off the pace.
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A reaction in the second half coupled with our substitutions ultimately inspired a comeback win as goals from Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Jhon Duran sealed the three points, but Emery was keen not to gloss over his disappointment with our performance in the first half.
Equally, he also reiterated how pleased he was with the reaction after the break as we stormed back to win it eventually, but naturally, the Villa boss saw a lot of areas in which we can, and must, still improve, particularly around our defending as once again we failed to keep a clean sheet.
It was the first week of adapting to the European schedule again having won at Young Boys in the Champions League on Tuesday, and so perhaps that was a factor in our display, but Emery was clear on where he felt we weren’t good enough and that probably drew a frustrated and angry reaction from him during the half-time interval.
“It was the worst first half I’ve played with Aston Villa here,” he told VillaTV. “I didn’t watch one match like the first half we played; it was very, very poor. We lost possession, we weren’t pressing them, we weren’t organised and we were very passive.
“It was strange. Maybe we lost a little bit of the energy we had and we needed the second half to change our spirit, and we did it. We did it using some fresh players to add their qualities. In the second half we played following our supporters. Sometimes we have to play organised and thinking but we have to play with our heart, and our heart is to play to win, try to use our energy going forward and we came back the result.
“It was fantastic because we deserved it completely. In the first half, they deserved it more.
“We are scoring goals, but we have to reduce the chances that the opponent is creating. Today they had three very good chances to score. We conceded only goal but we have to try to avoid those situations. It’s not defending like we did in the first half – we were very low, very passive, and we have to defend being together, being strong and trying to jump together to reduce their ball possession.
“We had to play connecting with our 8 and 10 to exploit their space but we didn’t do it in the first half. In the second half, with the energy we used with our supporters, it changed the match completely.
“The second half was really fantastic.”
Emery reiterated the points above when speaking to the media, as although it’s thrilling and memorable to keep producing these wins from behind, they won’t always go our way and it asks a lot from the players week in and week out to dig deep and produce a comeback.
Especially as we look to compete on multiple fronts and win silverware this season, we have to be more efficient and clinical across the pitch to make these wins almost routine to continue to progress and build on improvement.
That will be a point of emphasis this week heading into our clashes with Wycombe Wanderers and Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup and Premier League respectively, but there were also positives as well, particularly with Jhon Duran scoring his fourth goal of the season, all of which have come off the bench, to continue to make an excellent impact when called upon.
“We want to win matches easier than we did,” he added. “We are showing how difficult it is to win in the Premier League – last week against Everton [0-2 to win 3-2],” he told BBC Sport.
“We were suffering in the first half but the second half was completely different. I am very happy because we won. It was very important we changed our energy and we played to win in the second half.
“Good impact again [from Jhon Duran]. The most important thing is we won. We will need all the players in the matches we play in the next few weeks.”
