Aston Villa boss Unai Emery conceded that a 1-1 draw was probably a fair result after being held by West Ham Utd in the Premier League on Sunday evening.
Villa made a fast start to the encounter and deservedly took an early lead through Jacob Ramsey, and at that point, it looked as though the tone had been set and we were going to push on to secure all three points.
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The injury sustained by Tyrone Mings was seemingly a crucial turning point as we lost our way from that point onwards, and during a woeful second-half performance, the Hammers bagged an equaliser and ultimately a share of the spoils.
It was a frustrating outcome for Villa as it’s a game we should have won given the position we were in with our advantage, and the fact that West Ham are struggling with multiple key injury absentees.
Emery was a lot calmer compared to his clear frustration in midweek after our defeat to Monaco, but he was still disappointed by the result, and provided an update on Mings after his injury blow.
“Good evening. Firstly because they are a good team, good players. They were always a threat and Tyrone Mings was injured. Lucas Digne helped us but we lost a little bit. In 90 minutes we missed some fresh legs,” he said in his post-match interview, as quoted by BBC Sport.
“I don’t know sadly but hopefully not a lot. With the left centre-back it’s very important with Pau Torres. He can play with his left foot. Today we have another centre-back. I needed one left-footed player. We were winning 1-0 and started very well. To keep the result in 90 minutes without one more goal is always difficult. They created one or two chances. I think the result is fair.
“Pau is injured, we are trying to get another centre-back after Diego Carlos left. We are in the process as well. We started the second part of the season with two wins and two draws, we have not lost. We wanted to win today. We have to continue building and trying to learn.
On Jhon Duran:Â “Some circumstances, of course, they are not helping us to focus 100%. Jhon Duran is our player and I want him here.
“They were pushing and got into our box and scored one goal. We didn’t feel strong or the fresh legs to recover or dominate or try to score. We have circumstances like the injury of Tyrone Mings and we don’t have another proper centre-back.
On Tyrone Mings:Â “I don’t know. Tomorrow we will test him and hopefully, it is not a lot. Things like that are punishing us.
“We started the second part of the season with two wins and two draws. We are very ambitious and we want more. We have to keep going and focus on Wednesday, recover some players, and try to use the last week in the transfer window. We have to get our performances quality. We want to play in Europe.”
Ultimately, there’s no time for Villa to dwell on this performance and result, as we have to go again in midweek against Celtic in the Champions League.
A win is a must if we are to have any hope of automatically qualifying for the knockout stage with a top-eight finish, and so the pressure will be on the players to deliver.
Given we lost our way in the second half with a familiar drop off in intensity, tempo and urgency which would suggest that fatigue is becoming a prominent issue, which was noted by Emery too above in saying that we lacked fresh legs, it’s a concern going into a major European game on Wednesday night.
This was ultimately another poor performance from Villa despite making such a bright start, and it’s also another big missed opportunity to secure three important points to keep up the pace with those teams above us in the standings.
