Aston Villa boss Unai Emery remained positive and upbeat despite our 2-0 defeat at Liverpool on Saturday.
The hosts ultimately secured all three points after goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah, but Villa will be frustrated with themselves as they failed to take advantage of some great opportunities.
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Whether it was our threat from set-pieces or a glorious chance for Morgan Rogers straight after the half-time interval, those were key moments that we didn’t take advantage of and ultimately were left to rue.
Further, we enjoyed good periods in the game where we were in control and pushing for a breakthrough, but we were undone by two counter-attacking goals from set-plays that cost us.
Particularly given how poor we were in our defeats to Tottenham and Club Brugge this past week, this was certainly a step in the right direction in terms of performance, and although Emery was still naturally disappointed with the result, he was optimistic that we go into the international break going the right way as we try to get out of this rut.
“Liverpool dominated sometimes but they did not have a lot of clear chances to score,” he said in his post-match interview, as per BBC Sport. “We did our work and we had the chances to score in the first half, in the second half, and we played more or less in the way I wanted.
“We have to keep improving, recover some players who have just come back after long injuries. Some players are not in the same performance level as last year but today they were a bit better.
“The league is tight, there are a lot of teams performing very well and we have to accept that we need to improve. We are under our level from last year a little bit but I am still confident.
“This year a lot of players have come back from long injuries. We have to try to keep the same positive attitude and mentality and try to accept sometimes results that we have had this week happen.
“We performed like we planned to before the game. Of course the result is not good, but we have to keep consistent in our structure, how we play and responding to things in the game.
“We had chances to score, maybe one potential penalty at the end, which I think with VAR was a penalty, but ok we have to accept the decisions of the referee.
“When they scored the second goal the match more or less was finished, but until that second goal we had chances to score. We were good defensively, we were patient and we felt comfortable even when they dominated the ball. We have to try and keep to our process and I think in some areas we are under our level of last year.
“Against Tottenham we played 70 good minutes and in 20 minutes we lost it. The defeat was more than we deserve. Today we kept our structure, did not concede too many chances, and we were getting in their box with the transitions.
“We were not clinical in the attacking third but we are building the team and performances. It was not enough to get points here but I am positive that we are moving forward. Of course we have to improve but we are in the right way.”
While it was difficult to find many positives in our previous three losses, if any, Emery is right to be more positive after this display as we produced a much-improved effort.
Ultimately though, we were wasteful when we did create openings, and particularly in big games against the top sides, we simply can’t afford to be as it will end up getting punished.
With the international break now upon us, it’s hoped that those within the squad who haven’t been called up can rest, recover and regroup, and we’ll hopefully build on this outing and get back to winning form starting against Crystal Palace on November 23.
