Analysis: Unai Emery's post-Arsenal blast a reminder of Aston Villa boss' big expectations

Nor Unai Emery. While Hanks and most others inside Villa Park were ready to pile plaudits on the home team’s bold if ultimately unrewarded performance against title-chasing Arsenal, the boss instead delivered the most withering post-match assessment of his reign to date.

“Embarrassing” and “unacceptable” were among the first words to pass his lips, with the none-too-subtle warning things need to change for the better pretty sharpish.

Harsh? It felt a little in the immediate aftermath of a contest ultimately decided by inches.

At one end, Aaron Ramsdale’s palm deflected Leon Bailey’s shot onto the underside of the bar and away to safety. At the other, Jorginho’s drive also hit the woodwork but bounced down onto the head of Emi Martinez and into the net. Across the whole absorbing piece, those two moments were the key difference.

Yet Emery’s anger appeared to be caused less by this match in isolation and more the concerning trends which in recent weeks have halted Villa’s resurgence. This was their third defeat on the spin, a run in which they have conceded 11 goals and twice been beaten 4-2 at home, having twice taken the lead on both occasions.

And though the last two losses have come against the Premier League’s best two teams – and no summary of Saturday’s match could ignore the reserves of character shown by an Arsenal team who entered under pressure – Emery has no interest in being a gallant loser. The verbal blast, also delivered directly in the dressing room, was a reminder of his high demands and just perhaps a method of keeping players on their toes ahead of four matches prior to next month’s international break which will define the rest of the season.

All are against teams beneath them in the table but while Villa’s gaze remains upward, they are not yet in a position to be entirely comfortable at what is happening below. Everton, their hosts on Saturday, have won two of their first three matches under Sean Dyche to climb out of the relegation zone.

Emery’s chief frustration against Arsenal was his team’s failure to stick with the gameplan.

Twice in the first half they got their noses in front, first through Ollie Watkins and then Philippe Coutinho, yet just as against Leicester a fortnight previously they were unable to build from a position of strength.

Wasteful in possession, they allowed the Gunners to build pressure which was always likely to tell, albeit the equalisers scored by Bukayo Saka and Oleksander Zinchenko were more than preventable. Tyrone Mings should have either or cleared Ben White’s 16th minute cross behind, rather than attempting an ambitious headed clearance which only served in sending the ball perfectly onto Saka’s left boot. Zinchenko then drilled home powerfully on the hour mark after Villa, not for the first time in recent weeks, appeared confused when their opponents took a short corner.

Martinez’s own goal was admittedly freakish and unlucky but Villa had already twice escaped punishment, first when a combination of the goalkeeper and Ezri Konsa did enough to put off Eddie Nketiah after the striker had been played in by Martin Odegaard, then when the latter shot horribly wide when it looked easier to score after Nketiah had stolen the ball from a dozing Konsa.

Either way, the defensive frailty which has crept into Villa’s game, coupled with the sudden inability to play with a lead, is concerning.

Emery was infuriated by his team’s lack of patience. Neither was he impressed with Martinez’s decision to go rogue in the closing moments and venture forward for a corner. Though it was a gamble which backfired spectacularly when Lucas Digne’s delivery sailed over the heads of the keeper and his team-mates, allowing Gabriel Martinelli to score into an empty net at the other end seconds later, in the big picture the boss’s explicit criticism of that particular incident felt curious.

Angry at his players as a whole for not following instructions, there was a sense he took aim at the biggest target.

So maddened was the Spaniard, a query about which positives might be taken from the match was met with a dismissive shrug.

But they were definitely there, whether in the willingness of his players go toe-to-toe with one of the country’s best teams, or in the goals scored by Watkins and Coutinho. For the former, it was a fourth in as many top flight games, matching a feat last achieved for Villa by Christian Benteke nearly a decade ago.

For Coutinho, meanwhile, scoring a first goal since the final day of last season will have felt like a truck being lifted off his shoulders.

The Brazilian’s performance in his first league start since early October wasn’t perfect but there was enough to put starting any obituary for his Villa career on hold.

The truth is Villa were agonisingly close to one of their best wins of the past decade and in a game which kept you guessing right to the end credits, teenager Jhon Duran missed the chance to deliver a major twist, a minute before Martinez’s unlucky ricochet, when he sent a curling shot too close to Ramsdale.

Hanks missed that moment and the dramatic finale, having left on 85 minutes in order to avoid post-match traffic and keep a dinner date in London. His memories of a rare trip to Villa Park will be mainly happy.

For Emery, it is all so different. His burning desire is to build a great team capable of great results, not one only involved in great matches.