Unai Emery fumes at ‘unacceptable’ Aston Villa players despite Fulham win

Aston Villa remain on track to potentially qualify for the Champions League after Saturday’s win against Fulham but Unai Emery was not particularly happy with his side’s display

Unai Emery has left his players under no illusions about his expectations after claiming aspects of the win against Fulham were ‘unacceptable’. The Midlands side beat Marco Silva ’s side 1-0 at Villa Park on Saturday with Youri Tielemans scoring the winning strike.

It leaves Villa sitting seventh in the Premier League table and just two points behind fifth-placed Chelsea, a position that will be enough to see the club return to the Champions League.

But Emery is not allowing Villa to rest on their laurels. He has demanded far more ruthlessness and concentration over the closing three games of the campaign.

Asked about a particularly angry reaction towards his defence mid-match, the Spaniard replied: “I was in the same way when we finished the first half because we started very well, we dominated and scored a goal, but we stopped a little bit.

“We started to play a bit more backpasses. Doing backpasses for one objective, to try to stop them and then progress (is fine) but we weren’t progressing like we needed and how we planned before.

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“Even not doing it, we were losing some easy balls. We spoke yesterday and this week how important it is to try to play and focus seriously in 90 minutes in our game plan, each one to feel comfortable. But if someone (Konsa) is relaxing a little bit, we are closer to losing.”

Villa now face three key games over the closing weeks of the season as they aim to qualify for the Champions League. They take on fellow European contenders Bournemouth before rounding off their campaign against Spurs and Manchester United.

“We should be very demanding every day and in our focus with the game plan to be consistent, expecting them and playing, always being so, so demanding in our process in 90 minutes,” Emery added.

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“We want to be consistent in the Premier League for 38 matches. But we have to be very consistent for 90 minutes each match. With the players in the starting XI, with the players in the bench – in the second half today, they helped us a lot, the sub players, how they impacted in 20, 30 minutes.

“It is necessary to have players very focused and with the game plan, demanding in their mind. When we lost some balls in the first half, in the dressing room I told them, ‘I can’t accept!’. I can’t accept sometimes how we were managing the match.”

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