27 December 2023 , 10:04
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Unai Emery didn't want to address Aston Villa's loss at Manchester United in his post-match interview, instead going off of a tangent about his team's "amazing" season.
The Spanish boss' side looked set to continue their remarkable campaign as they led 2-0 at Old Trafford at half-time on Boxing Day. However a second-half comeback, which ended with Rasmus Hojlund's first ever Premier League goal, saw United turn the game around.
It meant Villa missed the opportunity to go second above Arsenal and instead sit in third, three points off leaders Liverpool. Emery has received huge plaudits for how he's got Villa playing and smiled as he chose to focus on the bigger picture rather than their second-half collapse.
He told Amazon Prime Sports : "Thirty nine points. It’s amazing." Emery continued to laugh before adding: "Now you’re asking me in another direction! Good, good, only analyse tonight. Sixty minutes, fantastic. Fantastic."
John McGinn's early free-kick evaded everyone to put Villa ahead before Leander Dendoncker made it 2-0 after some poor United defending. The hosts though were re-energised in the second-half, scoring three times in 23 minutes to seal the three points. Emery though only wanted to acknowledge the opening hour.
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"I want to analyse this match with the first 60 minutes we played, very good. Then of course we have to take experiences and we have to improve in the level we want to get, the level we want to achieve," said the former Villarreal and Arsenal boss.
Aston Villa gave up a 2-0 half-time lead in Manchester"Our players are now taking experiences. Manchester United, they have more experiences than us, more time being in the top level, the players and the club and the team. We move on. In the end, very disappointed, but accepting, and trying to understand all our first part of the season."
Villa have enjoyed a sensational first-half of the season. They had been a club-record run of winning games at Villa Park and saw off Manchester City and Arsenal, prior to their draw with Sheffield United. Villa are on course to battle for a top four spot, which would be a further improvement on last year's seventh-place finish.