Aston Villa boss Unai Emery looked at the positives after our draw vs Bournemouth, but conceded that we didn’t control the match late on and ultimately paid the price.
Villa enjoyed good spells throughout the game as we dominated and created plenty of chances. However, Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers was equal to everything we threw at him, up until Ross Barkley eventually broke the deadlock in the second half and looked to have secured all three points for us.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Bournemouth: Disappointment after last-gasp equaliser
However, Villa lost our focus and composure in the latter stages as we looked to seal the victory, and after conceding one too many dangerous free-kicks, the visitors found a last-gasp equaliser through Evanilson who was left unmarked and headed past Emiliano Martinez with just 10 seconds remaining.
Emery was delighted with what he saw from his players through the first half and how we started the second, but he admitted that we weren’t in control for the last 10 minutes or so, and that is something that we must still improve on moving forward as we look to compete at a high level week in and week out.
“We played a fantastic match, against this team was very difficult,” Emery told Match of the Day, as quoted by BBC Sport. |We imposed our ideas. We created chances to scored in the first half, we had one goal which was not because the ball was out.
“We improved even in the second half and for 35 minutes we played fantastic. We created chances, we stopped them, and we scored the goal. But we knew before how we needed to be always ready for everything, because they are a team who are always going forward when they get the ball.
“At the last moment we didn’t control the match. For the last 10 minutes we didn’t control. Of course we deserved to win, but we have to accept it. It’s painful but we have to accept it.
“We are being very demanding and we want to be in the top position in the league. But we have to accept that we are continuing. We are having a fantastic start in the league and Champions League and we are of course frustrated because we want to win.”
On Villa’s disallowed goal: “VAR is clear, of course. If VAR is telling us no goal it’s clear. For me the referee was fantastic today. It was not a goal because it was out, through VAR.”
It’s another disappointing draw after a Champions League midweek round, and so that is something that the Villa boss has to work on with the group as if we are to compete at the very top of the Premier League over the course of the season, we must be better and more consistent.
While there were undoubtedly a lot of positives to take from the game given how we played for the majority of it, it’s a harsh lesson that we’ve learned after dropping two points, and it’s something that we will hopefully avoid repeating in the future by knowing how to react and deal with the pressure more effectively and smartly.
As always though, Emery continued to focus on the positives, refusing to even criticise the referee or officials despite a flurry of yellow cards and a disallowed Villa goal, and the classy Basque coach will no doubt switch his focus quickly now to Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup next week before two more tough assignments in the Premier League with Tottenham and Liverpool away to follow, plus a trip to Club Brugge in the Champions League sandwiched in between.
There were common themes in his post-match comments across the media outlets, as he was happy with our performance up until the last 10 minutes, but looking at the bigger picture and our start to the season as a whole, he refused to be negative or critical of how things have gone to this point.
“We played a fantastic match,” he added to Sky Sports. “We played I think the best minutes since the start of the season. The first half we controlled the game. At the beginning we were dominating and creating chances. We didn’t score, or when we did it was a no goal.
“The second half we started even better than the first half. We were pushing, dominating, creating chances. The goalkeeper was saving a lot of times.
“We scored the goal, fantastic, but we didn’t manage the last 10 minutes. We didn’t manage because they are a very competitive team always playing to win corners and chances, force mistakes. They scored in the last moment and we have to accept it. But we were fantastic again, really I’m very happy.
“Of course we are very demanding in our own way, but we are having a fantastic season. Today we only got one point and of course we deserved three points, but football is like that, and from the last 10 minutes they deserved to get something and they got it.
“The VAR is for the referees and the referee today did a fantastic job.
“We try to avoid our opponents getting to our box, try to avoid conceding corners. Teams like Bournemouth their style is so direct, quickly getting to the opposition box. We made a mistake in our focus because maybe we were tired, not focused 100%. This is one thing I know we have to improve.”