Despite having played one extra game, the 4-0 loss reduced fourth-place Villa’s lead over their opponents to just two points; however, Emery reminded his players that they still have ten games left in the season to play.
Express and Star states he also denied that tiredness played a role, despite Ange Postecoglou, the manager of Spurs, saying he felt Villa were losing steam towards the end of the first half.
When the hosts saw captain John McGinn sent off, the visitors scored four goals in the second half. When asked if he agreed with Postecoglou’s assessment, Emery said, “Not really.” I believe we weren’t exhausted and were eager to play.
“The circumstances in the second half were they got the first goal and the second goal was a mistake we made.
“At 2-0 we tried to push and score but to change I put fresh players on but the red card changed the match completely.”
Referee Chris Kavanagh gave McGinn a straight red card for scything down Destiny Udogie. McGinn now faces a three-match suspension, which will further strain Emery’s already injured team.
Villa’s next game before the international break is against Ajax on Thursday in the second leg of their Europa Conference League last-16 match. On Sunday, they play their final game before going to West Ham.
Unai Emery’s Explanations
“I did not speak a lot with the players,” said Emery, who defended his decision to switch to a five-man defence, “I told them keep going, move on and think about Thursday and then the game against West Ham.”
The head coach continued: “We are building our mentality. We were progressively getting better and being emotionally mature.
“We have to try and control emotion when we are under pressure. The maturity of the players here is getting better.
“Today is one drop in the control of the emotion I am trying to build. We lost so, so easy the second half our moment to make the game calm, playing and trying to come back.
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“The red card makes it more difficult and of course we will analyse but the most important in the Premier League is to be consistent for 38 matches.
“Of course we are sad and disappointed but we are fourth.”
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