Jack Grealish Lauds Bruno Fernandes After Manchester United's Victory Over Aston Villa
Former Aston Villa star Jack Grealish has issued high praise for Bruno Fernandes following Manchester United's 3-1 Premier League win against his old club. The United captain delivered two assists in Sunday's match, prompting Grealish to share his admiration on social media.
Grealish's Social Media Verdict on Fernandes
In an Instagram story featuring the United versus Villa match in the background, Grealish said: "Bruno is [an] absolutely unbelievable footballer man." Grealish, who is currently on loan at Everton but sidelined for the season due to injury, appeared to relish United's display against his boyhood club.
He would have almost certainly seen United goals from Casemiro, Matheus Cunha, and Benjamin Sesko. Ross Barkley was the player on target for the visitors, with that goal levelling the game before United went on to score twice in the final 20 minutes.
Aston Villa's Champions League Reality Check
Villa now find themselves three points behind United in fourth place but still above Liverpool and Chelsea, after their disappointing weekend results, in the race for Champions League football. Just one win in seven Premier League games has seen Villa's gap to their rivals drop significantly.
However, there has been one hugely positive result for Villa in recent weeks, which was their Europa League last-16 first leg win over Lille in France. The return leg at Villa Park arrives this coming Thursday with Emery and Co. set to face Bologna or AS Roma in the next round as long as they avoid defeat to their upcoming Ligue 1 opponents.
Villa are one of the favourites to triumph in the Europa League, and doing so would see them secure Champions League football for next season regardless of league finish. To achieve that, individual errors will need to be ironed out with Emery bemoaning those when delivering his assessment of Sunday's defeat in Manchester.
Unai Emery's Assessment of the Defeat
He said: "We played good in the first half, but it wasn’t enough because we controlled sometimes like we planned and we were stopping them as well. We were good defensively, and we didn’t concede a lot. We had one chance through Ollie Watkins, and it was an equal match in the first half."
"In the second half we were less dominant against the opponent than the first half, they were dominating more and they scored one goal. We reacted fantastic, drawing, and it was the key moment to try again in our game plan or to score a second goal with one chance, like we had with Tammy Abraham."
"We conceded some transitions and they scored. They got the advantage in the result with their goal, and after it, it was more difficult for us. We tried but conceded some more transitions and they scored the third goal. We had some chances, but overall it’s a pity how we were competing, performing and how we lost in some moments the control of the game we had. Through it, they showed their capacity in transition to get the advantage they did."
