Aston Villa boss Unai Emery conceded that a draw was a fair result after being held by Ipswich Town in an entertaining 2-2 draw on Sunday.
Goals from Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins turned things around in the first half at Portman Road after Villa fell behind early, but Liam Delap scored his second of the game in the second half to secure a share of the spoils for the home side.
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While Villa had the better of the opening 45 minutes as we enjoyed good spells of possession to build sustained pressure and eventually find breakthroughs, we lost that element of control in the second half and ultimately became more vulnerable.
Emery assessed the game in the same way as he was seemingly pleased with our first-half performance, but ultimately he felt as though a draw was a fair result given how Ipswich pushed us after the break to earn a point.
“It was a pretty good match and I think the draw was fair,” he was quoted as saying after the game by BBC Sport. “We were better in the first half, the second half we lost our concentration and the consequences happened because they scored and they could have scored one more.
“We had our chances but we conceded more than normal and we didn’t control things like we did in the first half. I am not happy with the point but I have to accept it because I think it is fair.
“They had their game plan of course when they scored it was a surprise because we started well. I wanted us to finish strongly and oppose and we didn’t do that.
“We controlled the first half better than the second half and I think the result was fair in the end. We are in a process, we got one point but of course we have to try and progress the way we are. Some players are getting better.
“We started the first half very well, we came back and we controlled the game really well. But in the second half they were pushing.
“They did it, they scored, because we couldn’t control like we wanted to and it was a really fair result.”
While we continue to score goals and find ways to come from behind and pose a real threat in the final third on a consistent basis, our defensive form continues to be a major concern as our long wait for a clean sheet in the Premier League goes on.
Villa simply can’t afford to continue falling behind as we’ll eventually start to drop more points, but our defensive frailties are making life very difficult as we looked porous at the back again this weekend.
Emery defended the option of playing Ezri Konsa at right-back as it has produced positive results in the past, but ultimately it looks a problem more often than not, and particularly with Diego Carlos appearing to be a liability over the past week with his defensive mistakes and deficiencies, time will tell if it’s something that we stick with going into a big week in Europe and the league.
Full focus now switches to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday night, and although it is disappointing to drop points this weekend, given the way in which the game played out, Emery perhaps makes a fair assessment of it being a decent result in coming away with a point.
