Aston Villa boss Unai Emery focused on the positives despite seeing his side suffer a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday night.
Villa’s 11-game winning streak came to an abrupt end against the Gunners in north London, as although we produced an encouraging performance in the opening 45 minutes, we weren’t able to maintain it after the break.
To their credit, Arsenal were much-improved in the second half and deserved the win as they produced a ruthless display and punished us for making too many individual mistakes, and so it was ultimately disappointing to see the manner in which we fell to the loss.
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Nevertheless, it’s been an incredible run of winning games across all competitions, and Emery was keen to praise his players and largely focus on the positives despite the defeat.
The first goal just after the restart and the injury suffered by Amadou Onana were undoubtedly two major moments in the encounter that swung the momentum firmly in Arsenal’s favour, but it’s hoped that we can continue to learn from that and bounce back immediately against Nottingham Forest at home on Saturday.
“So, so happy with the players and of course we must analyse this match, but overall we are getting the day 19 with the points we have and the week we did,” he said, as quoted by BBC Sport.
“Today we did very good first half, different to the match against Chelsea and of course we were competing well and even getting our momentum and creating chances. We did not concede a lot, no corners in the first half for them. But the second half the first goal changed everything and after it they pushed it. And we had as well the injury of Amadou Onana and we lost everything in the middle and they have the power they showed. And we finished losing. Now with the players, my analysis is after the match how we did here 90 minutes but overall the most important is try to understand overall how we are.
“The first goal, how they score it maybe could be foul but her in England it is more difficult because the referees they let to touch the keepers and it is difficult but we must accept because it’s both sides.”
On Villa’s 11-game winning run ending:Â “Football is now. Football is now, how we are now. Everything we did was fantastic. More or less we are getting our way, we could expect a better way maybe because we are third in the league and Europa League very good, but try to analyse today and the players we have.”
On why he went down the tunnel quickly and whether he was unhappy with anything:Â “No, when I finish the match I am always waiting to shake hands with another coach but he was with the coaches and I can’t wait for him. Of course, I was there but no problem. I went to my dressing room.”
“In the first half, we competed fantastically. I thought we played better than in the last match against Chelsea. We were speaking about it this morning, whether we could be consistent over 90 minutes and try to get our momentum more than we achieved against Chelsea. We did that in the first half today but we just didn’t score. We were feeling good though, feeling comfortable and confident with how we played.
“It didn’t help us trying to keep the same structure in the second half because we couldn’t play with one midfielder like Amadou Onana or Boubacar Kamara or Ross Barkley. We lost a little bit of momentum after the first goal because we weren’t getting our structure strong enough and then the second goal made it even more difficult.
“Even at 4-0, we were still creating chances though. We used the match to firstly compete and get three points, but when we realised we couldn’t we tried to get experience from it and add more young players in. It was about continuing to build the team, so the experiences we are getting from losing is fantastic.”
On whether he takes any issue with Arsenal’s first goal being allowed by the officials:Â “OK, it’s like that here. Here in England, it is difficult for the goalkeepers when they are defending corners like that and the officials have this power. We must accept it.”
While there might be a debate for some surrounding the first goal and whether or not it was a foul on Martinez, ultimately that inability to command his area effectively enough is becoming a problem, and it’s hoped that we can address that sooner rather than later having run into a similar problem against Chelsea last weekend.
Getting Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara back from suspension at the weekend will no doubt be a huge boost, while there will hopefully be good news on the injury front too in terms of recovering key individuals, starting most notably with Pau Torres.
In turn, while it was certainly a real shame to see our winning run come to an end in such emphatic fashion in midweek, there is still plenty to be positive about overall after a promising first half of the campaign on the whole.
