Unai Emery issues Sunderland compliment and reveals role fans played in Aston Villa draw

Unai Emery said his Aston Villa side need to rediscover their identity but praised Sunderland for their performance at the Stadium of Light on Sunday,

Aston Villa scored their first goal of the Premier League campaign midway through the second half when Matty Cash beat Robin Roefs from long range, and appeared likely to go on and secure the win given that Reinildo had seen red in the first half. However, Sunderland had competed well throughout the contest and scored a deserved equaliser through Wilson Isidor.

Ollie Watkins missed a big late chance to score a winner and while hugely frustrated with the performance his team produced, Emery was quick to praise Sunderland's efforts.

Emery said: "Some attitudes in some moments... Normally the [Aston Villa] players play with attitude, but sometimes because maybe they are a little upset or they are maybe a little bit not feeling good, they are not fighting.

"It's something we collection have to try to understand and to try to feel better. But of course Sunderland as well they are here at home, in this stadium, they are playing so, so motivated, enthusiastic, the supporters they are helping them, the atmosphere is a very great atmosphere. Even playing with one less player, they were feeling strong. And sometimes we were playing under the pressure from the supporters and not, OK, I can close my ears [block out the noise] and play."

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Unai Emery reveals frustration with Aston Villa performance against Sunderland

Emery was left particularly disappointed with the defending for Isidor's goal, with the Frenchman scoring from Granit Xhaka's headed pass despite being heavily outnumbered in the box.

“We are not playing like I want,” Emery said.

“We have to adapt some new players in the structure, and we will need time with them. Others know we want to control the game with the ball. Their chances started with their goalkeeper. Long balls and second actions in our box. Like that, we are conceding chances. We had one player more. We didn’t control the game doing passes, and passes, and passes. We did not take the right moment to attack them.

"We have to recover our identity. I am not frustrated with the result, but disappointed and frustrated about how we are playing. We are not feeling comfortable with our style. We have to try to recover our personality and confidence to play like we are training. Some players need to adapt, for example, Harvey Elliott was getting the ball and passing behind the defence without options. He needs to understand that he has the skills to play more passes and then do the pass behind or outside with better options.

“We were lazy sometimes defensively. Lazy. For example, the goal we conceded, we were lazy. The whole team. Maybe it’s because we didn’t play in our style. We have experiences in three years, and how we felt confidence through it. Then, we can get better chances to dribble and be close to scoring. Watkins is not having chances to score, but he had the last one. Maybe if he scored, it would have been the click to change everything, but we have to continue work to try to look for it."

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