“Bad Result” – Aston Villa boss Unai Emery reveals what annoyed him most about Villa’s defeat to Man Utd

Unai Emery insists Aston Villa lacked consistency in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United, as his side’s unbeaten run in the Premier League was ended at Old Trafford.

Bruno Fernandes’ goal in the first half was all that separated the two sides, as the midfielder was on hand to finish in the 39th minute, after Emi Martinez parried Marcus Rashford’s shot. Villa created few opportunties in the second half and saw their run of scoring in every game under Emery end after the defeat.

Villa remain in the European positons heading into the final four games of the season, but rivals Brighton and Liverpool have more than one game in hand against Emery’s side. After the loss at Old Trafford, the Villa head coach was frustrated his players didn’t see the rewards of carrying out the game plan.

“In ninety minutes you have to be more consistent, try to control the game like we are trying to build,” Emery said on BBC Match of the Day. “But of course we are playing against Manchester United, they were pushing us, playing in their stadium with their supporters.

“We didn’t have our usual personality that we have in the first half. In the second half we improved and were better to reduce the distance.

“We didn’t get a lot of good chances but the second half was better for us and we could have scored one goal. We tried to be strong in our game plan.

“We were trying to progress quickly and trying to avoid risk but in football you have to take risks to improve. We were competitive in the second half and I think today was a bad result but the match gave us a lot of information.”