Unai Emery admits Aston Villa’s defeat by Everton could make ‘a big difference’ to whether they achieve their aims this season as they miss chance to close gap to Arsenal

Unai Emery fears Aston Villa’s home defeat by Everton may stop them fulfilling their ambitions this season as his side missed the chance to go second in the Premier League.

Everton‘s 1-0 win at Villa Park ended a run of 11 straight wins on home turf for Emery’s men and ensures Arsenal end the weekend seven points clear at the top of the table. Thierno Barry’s second-half goal was enough to settle the matter against an off-colour Villa.

Villa also lost skipper John McGinn to injury – a major worry with fellow midfielders Boubacar Kamara, Amadou Onana and Ross Barkley also sidelined. But Emery was clearly fuming at what he felt was a missed opportunity here.

‘If we’d won today, we’d have 46 points,’ he said. ‘Normally three points one way or another is a big difference at the end of the season. We lost a very good opportunity. To go second in the league would have been something fantastic.

‘We created chances and didn’t score. In the other games, with the same chances, sometimes we won, but not today. Everton have a very good structure and they competed well. They deserved to win. We must analyse the match and keep going.’

To add insult to injury, Donyell Malen scored on his Roma debut in their 2-0 win at Torino. Villa agreed to let Malen move to Italy last week as they attempt to tie up a deal for another striker, possibly Tammy Abraham, who is on loan at Besiktas from Roma.

After seeing Jake O’Brien’s first-half header controversially ruled out for an offside against Harrison Armstrong, Everton boss David Moyes joked he was worried Barry’s strike would also be chalked off.

‘With all the decisions going against us, I expected them to find a way to say the ball hadn’t gone in the net,’ he said. ‘We are in a period where there are very few decisions going for us. But this was a brilliant performance given the players we had missing. It was a huge day for some players and they stepped up.’