Aston Villa boss Unai Emery conceded that our 3-1 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday was a “bad result” but is focused on recovering from the setback.
While both sides had their openings in the first half, neither could produce the quality needed to convert and take advantage ahead of the break. However, United found a breakthrough early in the second half before Villa struck back shortly after going behind through Ross Barkley, who produced an excellent finish in the box to draw us level.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to build on that and find a way to turn the encounter around, as the hosts went on to score two unanswered goals and secured all three points to move away from us in the Premier League standings.
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It’s another massive blow for our Champions League qualification hopes having lost to Chelsea last week, and with Liverpool threatening to push us out of the top four in the table, the pressure is mounting and there aren’t enough answers or solutions being presented.
While Emery insisted that his side will continue to fight and push to achieve our objective in the league, it feels increasingly likely that it could be Europa League or bust in terms of securing our place at the top table in Europe next season, as well as ending our trophy drought.
At this stage though given our form over the past month or so, it’s questionable as to whether or not we have the quality within our ranks to ensure this slump doesn’t continue between now and the end of the season, as we’ve not seen enough consistent signs of producing at the level required.
“Bad result,” he said, as per BBC Sport. “We played 90 minutes trying to continue in our mentality and the good form we had in Lille, but today was a huge challenge. The first half was equal. Second half we started poor, they dominated more and we needed to react and try to get control of the game.”
On if mistakes are costing his team: “Yes. This is the key. When you can keep the ball and try to stop them with the ball, it’s like we want. In 90 minutes a lot of things happen, some we did fantastic and some we missed momentum. Overall we needed to play smart with our idea.
“Manchester United are at a high level and to face them today was a huge challenge for us. We are competing and were with the same points, today we finish three points behind them. Keep going, we must use the points we had before to try to keep going, keep fighting and keep recovering tactically and with confidence.”
It’s been said time and time again in recent months, but Villa must now produce a response against Lille on Thursday night and secure our place in the next round of the Europa League.
With West Ham United to follow ahead of the international break, there’s still an opportunity to recover and build fresh momentum before we can regroup and push in the last stretch of the season, but there are undoubtedly major ongoing concerns with our performances and form after another poor display and defeat.