Unai Emery identifies ‘abnormal’ Aston Villa concern in Chelsea defeat
Aston Villa’s 3-1 loss to Chelsea on Wednesday night was caused by an anomalous problem that Unai Emery has discovered, depriving the men in claret and blue of the chance to advance further in the Emirates FA Cup.
The Villans were eliminated from the competition at the replay stage of the fourth round, despite being outplayed for a large portion of the match. Similar to the 3-1 Premier League defeat to Newcastle United only a few weeks prior, Villa’s home performance was unexpectedly poor as they were unable to establish any meaningful dominance in the middle of the park.Though he is generally pleased with his team’s ability to generate opportunities, Emery has pointed out that his team’s primary shortcoming this evening was a lack of midfield authority. The head coach acknowledged that it was expensive to have players like Boubacar Kamara, John McGinn, and Douglas Luiz out of the game significantly more frequently than normal.
“Compared to usual, we lost more balls. We weren’t playing well in our medium block, and they were posing a threat from behind,” Emery said in the news conference following the game. Naturally, there are moments when the players’ performances could be improved. I have to work at maintaining equilibrium so they have time to heal.They were methodical in their goal-setting and entered our box with a few crosses. We must acknowledge the match and make an effort to analyze it thoroughly. Chelsea’s players are excellent, and they demonstrated this tonight. It’s difficult to compete when they’re acting clinically, Emery went on.
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