Unai Emery delivers brutally negative Aston Villa verdict after Wolves win

Emery believes Villa’s first half against Wolves was the worst performance from his team since he arrived at the club nearly two years ago.

The Villans were completely outplayed by Wanderers for the first 45 minutes and the visitors took a deserved 1-0 lead into the interval. Matheus Cunha broke the deadlock as he pounced on a misplaced Diego Carlos pass and struck clinically into the near bottom corner midway through the half. Wolves then dominated possession right up until the referee’s whistle.

It was an entirely different story in the second period as Villa saw much more of the ball and forced Gary O’Neil’s side into their defensive third for the most part. It took until the 70th minute for any real chance creation but there was then a flurry of opportunities before Ollie Watkins equalised. Goals from Ezri Konsa and Jhon Duran completed the comeback as Villa won 3-1.

Emery was delighted with the recovery job to claim a fourth win in five Premier League games, but the Spaniard didn’t want to ignore just how poor his side played earlier in the encounter.

“We suffered in the first half more than normal. I think it was the worst we played from when I arrived here until now,” Emery admitted in the post-match press conference.

“It was strange because we weren’t playing with energy and were a little bit passive. We planned the match trying to play here at home more active and trying to impose and dominate. It was completely different.

“When we were without the ball, they were keeping it for a long time. More than we wanted to concede at home. We respect them because they are a good team and have a good structure. They were deserving to win. We didn’t shoot. It was a really poor first half performance. But the second half, that changed completely,” Emery said.