Unai Emery offers no excuses after Aston Villa slump to heavy Crystal Palace defeat

The Spaniard saw his team beaten for the seventh time in their last nine Premier League away matches to lose ground in the race for a top-five finish.

Ismaila Sarr opened the scoring for Palace in the 29th minute and though Morgan Rogers levelled for Villa early in the second half it was the hosts who seized command, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Eddie Nketiah netting either side of Sarr’s second of the night.

Emery changed Villa’s system to a back three as he looked to neutralise Palace’s attacking threat but his team floundered after an encouraging start.

“This is the Premier League and each match is very difficult, playing away even more,” said Emery.

“To stop them at the beginning was our plan and we did fantastic for the first 30 minutes.

“We weren’t conceding chances but the first corner and chances we conceded they scored.

“Until that moment we were good.

“In the second half we tried to recover our positioning but we conceded more on the transition.

“We scored and were drawing but then we conceded again and they showed us their capacity. They dominated the end of the match.

“We are not being consistent in the Premier League and we are losing some good opportunities, like today.”

Villa lost goalkeeper Emi Martinez to injury at half-time and Emery revealed the World Cup winner had been complaining of pain after passing a late fitness test.

Emery, meanwhile, acknowledged his team may have been unlucky when Rogers saw a 42nd minute equaliser ruled out by an extremely tight offside call on Ollie Watkins.

“Maybe we were unlucky but we have to accept it, VAR,” said Emery.