Unai Emery, manager of Aston Villa, thought our 1-1 draw with Wolves was a fair result, but he was disappointed by our performance on Sunday.
While Villa did well to establish a foothold and begin to take control of the game, we lacked our customary rhythm and quality in our build-up play to force Wolves open and create more chances.
There was drama in the closing stages as we began to build sustained pressure and create chances, with Ollie Watkins hitting the post with the final touch of the game, but we couldn’t find that killer break on this occasion and had to settle for a point, with Wolves reduced to 10 men in injury time as well.
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Emery was upset that we only picked up a point on Sunday, given his demands and the high standards he’s attempting to set, but he believed the outcome was a fair reflection of the game.
“I’m very happy with the month we’ve had because I think we’ve progressed,” Emery told VillaTV. “We took some points against difficult teams: Chelsea, Brighton and today one point. I was heavily disappointed during the match because I was thinking it was a good opportunity to take three points.
“Here, they are very strong and it’s a derby. I was thinking if we improved some things on the pitch we could win.
“We were closer to winning than not. We were respecting them because they’re amazing on the transition. They did two, three or four transitions and scored one goal.
“I was very frustrated with their goal because it was something we can avoid. But we reacted very, very quick, we scored and the match was level.
“The result was fair 11v11 but after the red card, we had chances to push on, get into their box and score. At the end of the match, if we were winning, it would have been fair as well.
“We really prepared the match and we were really concentrated to go into the break taking three points today.
“We did everything and the players were focused on the match. We worked in the way we were doing but we can’t always take three points.
“We have to be really happy with the points we have and how we are progressing as a team, trying to build a team.”
There appeared to be tension at the end of the game since the two managers did not shake hands before Emery exited the tunnel, but the Villa manager has revealed what transpired.
It was a tough encounter with plenty of fouls, and tempers flared at times both on and off the field, with John McGinn spotted conversing with the Wolves bench at one point.
Emery, on the other hand, has disregarded the scenario and asserted that there was nothing to it.
“Nothing,” Emery added, as per the Athletic, on what happened with Gary O’Neil at the full-time whistle. “I was waiting to tell him congratulations, shake his hand and he was speaking to the assistant referee and I left. Simply.”
