Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has expressed his frustration following his side's 1-0 defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage, insisting the performance warranted a better result. The Spaniard cut a frustrated figure throughout the match as Villa missed a golden opportunity to take a significant step towards Champions League qualification.
Ryan Sessegnon's goal late in the first half proved decisive. The Fulham winger followed in from close range after Emi Martinez saved Sasa Lukic's header. The defeat means Villa still have work to do to secure a top-five finish, despite Emery's pre-match ambition of finishing third.
Emery's reaction
When asked why he was angry after full-time, Emery said: 'With the result, not with the performance. I am not happy that we lost. Not to do with the performance. The match we expected was more or less on the field. Difficult match. The first half they dominated more. We tried to do a high press, but even through it they scored a goal.'
'We were then compact and disciplined and through it we had two chances, one for Morgan and one for Watkins. We also had corners. We couldn't dominate like we want because they were getting man to man, like lots of matches we are playing.'
Second half improvement
'We conceded one goal and we were losing, but the second half changed as we dominated more and we were more in the attacking third. We created two very good chances to score - Watkins and Tammy Abraham. Those four chances in 90 minutes, it was something to be clinical in to score a goal, but we were not clinical. We have to continue practising to score a goal with the chances we had.'
Emery added: 'My work is how we can improve things. Today we didn't work well, in the moment to shoot to score. In Nottingham, we had the same chances for Watkins, it was the same. Being responsible myself to practice and correct it.'
