Unai Emery confident despite Aston Villa's losing run

Saturday night’s 2-0 defeat at Anfield means Villa are on their worst run since Emery took charge two years ago, having been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Crystal Palace and suffered league defeats at Tottenham and Liverpool either side of last week’s Champions League loss at Club Brugge.

But Emery took heart in what he believed was an improved performance against the Reds, who have now won 15 out of 17 matches under new boss Arne Slot.

Villa conceded twice on the counter attack through Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah but also caused the home side problems, with Caoimhin Kelleher saving from both Amadou Onana and Diego Carlos.

Emery said: “How we played and are building a team, with some players getting better, I am confident. 

“I am confident because I think we are in the right way after this match. We wanted to get points but against Liverpool we can accept the result because they are really feeling strong at home and not really dominating and creating chances against us. They won and we accept it.”

Nunez opened the scoring when Liverpool broke on the counter following a Villa corner, with Salah then making the points safe when he pounced on a mistake by Carlos late on.

But in between Villa failed to capitalise on a number of promising positions, with Morgan Rogers missing a good chance to equalise early in the second half. It was the third time they had failed to score in the league this season but Emery downplayed any concern over his attacking players, pointing out the quality of their opponents.

He said: “They are fighting against one of the best players in the world with Van Dijk and Konate. 

“Even like that we created some attacks and we needed a little bit more to threaten them getting real chances to score. We had one very clear chance at the beginning of the second half with Morgan Rogers. 

“But they are some of the better players defensively in the world. It is not easy. This is the reason that the level they have is a high level. 

“The level we have is high but there is a gap between Liverpool and us. Last year we were close in the table, two years ago we were close. This year it is bigger. 

“How we faced them on the field, I think the gap is still for them being better than us. I think we can reduce the distance in 38 matches. This is day 11. We must try to be consistent and demanding, trying to improve and recover players, feeling confident.”