2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (John Townley)
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery sat down with the media after his side's 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace at Villa Park. Ollie Watkins equalised after Ismaila Sarr's early opener, before Palace took the lead again before half-time after Youri Tielemans missed a penalty. Ross Barkley salvaged a point for Villa by heading in Tielemans' corner in the 77th minute.
Here is every word Emery said in his post-match press conference...
Unai, your overall thoughts on the performance and result? "Of course, here at home we were thinking about how strong we were when we were winning 15 matches in a row and how we can recover that confidence and energy here, imposing our game plan and winning the match. This is the first step we want to do here. We are losing some opportunities, but not in the way [we played] against Bournemouth and like we played today.
We are conceding a few chances from the opponent and they are scoring goals. READ | John Townley's Aston Villa player ratings after 2-2 Crystal Palace draw extends winless run READ | The romantic in me loves the idea of Jack Grealish sealing stunning Aston Villa return "We are making mistakes and they are scoring. We are not getting points like we deserved.
There is still work to do. We are really convinced this is the way we played here at home this year in the Premier League, not getting three points but deserving in each match, more or less, to win. "Even when we lost to Arsenal we played well.
We drew to Manchester United and Bournemouth too. Today we drew but we played well. We are making some mistakes and we are getting punished a lot.
This is the work we need to do. "We are being very demanding to find the consistency we had last year. We have to believe that we can get a good balance in everything we do.
"We conceded one transition today and they scored. We conceded one against Liverpool and we worked to try to correct it. Even like that we made this mistake today.
Overall, we had more chances and we dominated the match. We didn’t concede a lot from them. Every team has good players with a game plan.
"Their momentum was clinical and we have to correct details. We have to play against teams like today, Manchester United and Bournemouth, knowing how we responded over 90 minutes to get more points." Is it a concern to concede from your own corners in the last two games? "Yes, yes.
This is the mistake I am speaking [about]." Why did it happen again? "Today we corrected it, but even today they did it. But we corrected it.
We were deeply analysing the transition in Liverpool, but even still they did it [today]." What was the correction? "Against Liverpool we were two out the box and today we were three out of the box. Of course, the correction is about how many players we can have in the balance and then how we can react and respond to how they react to us.
" Did you miss leadership at the back? "We are conceding more goals than normal. We have to try and find a solution." Is this the toughest spell you've had as Villa manager? "It depends.
Two years ago when we arrived, we lost two matches in a row against Arsenal 4-2 and Leicester 4-2. In that moment it was something not good. Now, more or less, we have the same sort of momentum.
" What are the reasons why you’re conceding so many goals? "Yes. We wanted to dominate the match with our positioning, not conceding a lot from the opponent. We did it against Bournemouth and we did it today.
Even reducing chances and their capacity to get in our box and we created chances, we didn’t win those matches. Now we have to do one step ahead more, analysing deeply why we are not getting what we deserve. "We also have to respect the opponent and understand they can have chances.
They can score a goal because they have good players and today was more or less like that. One good transition and the transition in the second goal as well." What do you make of Emery's comments? Tell us here.
