Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has shared his analysis of our 1-0 defeat to Wolves, as he picked out both positives and negatives on a disappointing afternoon.
Toti’s first-half goal was the difference between the two sides, as although Villa recovered after a poor start to dominate possession and create chances, we were wasteful in big moments.
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That in turn resulted in a bitterly frustrating outcome as we’ve now slipped to consecutive defeats, which in turn have derailed our push for European qualification.
With three games remaining this season, we’ll have to win all three and hope results elsewhere go our way, but Emery was keen to focus on some of the positives, particularly in the bigger picture in terms of how far we’ve come in a short period of time to even be in the position we’re in now.
“I was very happy in the first half, not with the result but with how we played,” he said, as quoted by BBC Sport. “We had control of the ball and stopped their high press. We had chances but we didn’t score and we spoke about keeping the same idea in the second half.
“They [Wolves] had chances in the second half and we had one very good chance but the key was to score and to try to take the game but we are still keeping chances. We are three points behind Tottenham but we play them at home next week and, in front of our supporters, we will try again and keep the European chance still open.
“We were playing at a high level and winning a lot of points but the last three matches away we played a bit worse. Today, we deserved more. That is the team I want to see in the first half.
“The result is disappointing but, overall, we have to be excited and the position we are in, we could not have dreamed of three months ago. We have to play three matches but the next match against Tottenham is our final.
“If I can take off the result, I can be happy. We played differently today than we did at Brentford and Man Utd. We controlled the game better but in the first half I told them I want to watch my team playing like that.
“The second half was a little bit different because the match was slower. We had three chances to score in the first half and two in the second. Maybe the fair result was a draw.
“They [Wolves] have to play to get off the bottom and they have a game plan at home. They scored quickly but we played the match by trying to keep calm and trying to make our passes to the box.
“Overall, we are still making chances but we are disappointed. We appreciate the supporters and next week we will try to get to our target.”
Perhaps one of the criticisms was that we started too slowly and didn’t adapt well enough to the intensity and tempo of the game in the early stages, and that in turn left us in a difficult position in terms of fighting our way back into the encounter.
There were certainly positives in the first half as we responded well, but with the likes of Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Buendia and Tyrone Mings all going close, we simply weren’t clinical or ruthless enough in key moments to turn it around.
Villa have been competitive and lost by slim margins over the past fortnight, but we’ve undoubtedly dropped off over the last four games and that has seen us pick up just four points.
In turn, particularly with players coming back from injury this weekend, it’s hoped that we’ve still got a second wind left in us to go again next Saturday, and hopefully we’ve still got a chance to break back into the European spots to earn an important reward for our turnaround under Emery.