Unai Emery responds to Roberto De Zerbi’s claim about Aston Villa

Unai Emery has responded to Roberto De Zerbi claiming the ‘real Aston Villa’ didn’t turn up against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday afternoon.

The Villans’ loss was merited as they recorded just two shots throughout a lethargic and lacklustre performance at the American Express Stadium. Brighton, on the other hand, looked a tad surprised they were able to dominate proceedings after their 6-1 defeat at Villa Park earlier in the campaign.

De Zerbi was particularly stunned as his team, threadbare due to several injuries much like Villa, could’ve won by several goals. In the end, it was just the one as Joao Pedro nodded in on the rebound after seeing an 87th-minute penalty saved by Robin Olsen.

“We played a great game against one of the best teams in the Premier League. Playing against the teams of Emery is always very tough,” De Zerbi said during the post-match press conference.

“We deserved to win and could’ve scored more goals but to be honest Villa weren’t like Villa today. Maybe they were tired, I can understand because they played on Thursday, competing in the Conference League with a lot of injuries. For that, they couldn’t be the Aston Villa of usual,” De Zerbi admitted, humble in victory.

Emery, entering the press room a while after Albion’s head coach, was understandably a little downbeat. The Spaniard hoped his team could put in a similar shift to away at Arsenal a few weeks ago - absorbing the pressure before a late burst - but it never came to fruition.

“Maybe, perhaps, but it is not an excuse for us,” Emery said when asked if De Zerbi was right about Villa looking fatigued. “Today we lost and we didn’t deserve more. We competed and we were focused trying to compete and stop them. They made more chances than us.

“But overall we are being positive. We can proud of the players and the club. The most important thing now is to rest. Do we think about Thursday? No, it is to rest. I don’t want to watch anything about Tottenham because them winning or not winning is not in our hands,” Emery continued.