Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was pleased with a point after our 1-1 draw at Bournemouth on Saturday.
Villa took the lead in the first half as Morgan Rogers produced an emphatic finish to break the deadlock, but the warning signs were certainly there in the opening 45 minutes, as Bournemouth threatened throughout.
That theme extended into the second half as while the hosts grew into the game and scored their equaliser before pushing on in search of a winner, Villa looked passive, tired and happy to dig in and come away with a point.
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There were surely aspects of our performance that didn’t please Emery, but the Villa boss gave credit to Bournemouth for making it difficult for us, while praising his side’s defending to earn a good point.
He can’t have been best pleased with the defensive breakdown that led to the hosts scoring, but that was undoubtedly one of the positives to come from the game, particularly given the absence of any creative quality and control in an attacking sense in the second half.
“The second half we couldn’t [play how we wanted], they pushed us,” he said, as quoted by BBC Sport. “They were in our box more times than we wanted. We tried to get some momentum to dominate. We created one chance with Matty Cash but they created more. It’s a very good point.
“We defended fantastic. It’s necessary to practice defending throw-ins and corners. A lot of duels. They are producing a lot of hands. We must fight.”
On Jadon Sancho: “He’s progressing. He’s getting better. Hopefully he can help us more and more this season.”
On Morgan Rogers: “Fantastic. He’s doing a fantastic season. He was always pushing, helping. Everyone was feeling good playing with him.”
Villa now look ahead to hosting Brighton in the Premier League on Wednesday night, and with the chasing pack closing the gap on us in the battle for Champions League qualification spots, it’s certainly a game that we need three points from to get back to winning ways and build some momentum and confidence again.