Aston Villa’s run in the Carabao Cup came to an end in midweek after a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace at Villa Park.
Jhon Duran’s first-half goal wasn’t enough to help us secure our place in the quarter-finals as the visitors advanced after efforts from Eberechi Eze and Daichi Kamada.
READ MORE: Villa player ratings vs Crystal Palace: Two major positives in disappointing defeat
After suffering defeat to Everton last season in this competition in similar fashion, it’s a disappointing and frustrating outcome given the opportunity to take another step towards winning silverware and ticking another key box under Unai Emery.
While our priorities may well lie elsewhere with the Premier League and Champions League, this was certainly a potential pathway for a trophy, and despite having the depth and quality competition to be able to compete across multiple fronts, Villa fell short in the Carabao Cup for the second year running.
Emery though remained upbeat as he insisted that he was happy with his team selection as he continues to manage his squad in the best possible way, although he did concede that he was disappointed and frustrated with the outcome.
“We wanted to win,” Emery told VillaTV. “We started the match a little bit lower than we needed, but we reacted after their goal and we created chances.
“We came back the result, drawing. It was not enough. We started the second half very well and we were close to scoring the second goal.
“We were with confidence and feeling good on the field. They scored the second goal and after it was more difficult.”
The disappointment over the result was the overriding feeling on Wednesday night, but there was a crucial boost for Villa with both Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara returning to the starting line-up and completing 90 minutes.
Both have been missed during their lengthy injury layoffs and so they’ll undoubtedly get stronger off the back of this fixture, and Emery was keen to highlight the importance of that as well as giving others a chance to play in order to make us more competitive.
In fairness, the Villa XI was good enough to get the job done given the experience and quality running through the side, and particularly after Palace lost Eze and Adam Wharton to injury in the first half, it was simply a bitterly disappointing performance, with few having an argument against the fact act we ultimately deserved to lose for not doing enough.
“Today, after the result, Tyrone Mings coming back was fantastic news and minutes as well for Emiliano Buendía and Boubacar Kamara,” Emery added. “We tried to use different players, giving them chances and opportunities.
“We played competing and at the end we lost, but we have to keep competing.”
