Unai Emery believes Aston Villa lacked ‘personality’ during the club’s 1-0 defeat at Manchester United.
Villa’s 10-game unbeaten run in the Premier League came to an end after a 1-0 defeat at Manchester United, as Bruno Fernandes scored the only goal of the game with an effort that deflected over Emiliano Martinez.
Emery’s side were second best for much of the contest and the Spaniard admitted Villa struggled to produce their usual level of performance at Old Trafford.
Douglas Luiz came closest to an equaliser as the midfielder’s late effort was cleared from the goal-line by Victor Lindelof. The defeat leaves Villa seventh in the table as the club chase a place in Europe for next season.
“In ninety minutes you have to be more consistent, try to control the game like we are trying to build,” Emery told BBC’s MOTD.
”But of course we are playing against Manchester United, they were pushing us, playing in their stadium with their supporters.
“We didn’t have our usual personality that we have in the first half. In the second half we improved and were better to reduce the distance. We didn’t get a lot of good chances but the second half was better for us and we could have scored one goal. We tried to be strong in our game plan.
“We were trying to progress quickly and trying to avoid risk but in football you have to take risks to improve. We were competitive in the second half and I think today was a bad result but the match gave us a lot of information.”
