Unai Emery admitted that Aston Villa’s first-half performance against Wolves was the worst since he has taken charge of the club, but he was delighted with their response as they came from behind to win 3-1 at Villa Park. Wolves took the lead in the first half through Matheus Cunha, who capitalized on a misplaced pass by Diego Carlos. Villa struggled for much of the game, but Ollie Watkins leveled the score in the 73rd minute, and Ezri Konsa gave Villa the lead in the 88th minute.
In his post-match press conference,
Unai Emery said “Very happy, very happy, but we suffered in the first half more than normal. I think it was the worst match we played from when I arrived here until now. It was strange because we weren’t playing with energy and were a little bit passive. We planned the match trying to play here at home more active and trying to impose and dominate. When we were without the ball, they were keeping it for a long time. More than we wanted to concede at home. We respect them because they are a good team and have a good structure.”
Emery acknowledged that Wolves deserved to win the first half:
Unai Emery said “They were deserving to win. We didn’t shoot. It was a really poor first-half performance. In the dressing room, we pushed to get some fresh players and to get more active in the press. We started to change the match through. We played the second half with our heart.”
He also highlighted the emotional energy that helped turn the game around:
Unai Emery said “I like to play organized always and with our positioning, but sometimes we have to share playing with our heart, trying to share the energy from the fans. We did it. I was angry. The result was bad and the performance was really poor. I was thinking how I could help the players to change it.”
