Eric Black: Scoreline was hard on Aston Villa

Caretaker boss Eric Black felt a 4-0 scoreline was harsh on Villa as they bowed out of the Premier League with defeat at Arsenal.

After conceding inside the opening five minutes at the Emirates, the claret and blues held firm until the final 12, when Olivier Giroud completed his hat-trick and goalkeeper Mark Bunn conceded a stoppage time own goal.

Black felt his team, who were without Alan Hutton and Ciaran Clark through injury and then lost Joleon Lescott and Jordan Lyden during the game, deserved better for their efforts.

"I thought the players worked extremely hard," he said. "Having conceded a goal so early on, you fear the worst as I'm sure most did.

"But we stuck at it and not only that, I thought in the second half, even two chances in the first half, in the second half there was a period where we got Arsenal slightly on the back foot, which doesn't always happen.

"The players deserve a lot of credit for their efforts. It's a 4-0 defeat and we take that on the chin.

"I thought it was harsh to be honest."

Black felt the enforced substitutions of Lescott and Lyden had a significant impact on the game.

Lescott was forced off midway through the second half while Lyden, who had been playing as a right wing-back, suffered a knee injury soon after

Black said: "I thought they were settled at that point. You're never in control of that quality of player but they had weathered difficult parts.

"I thought Joleon defended extremely well during the game as did Kevin Toner and Bacuna. It enforced us into two or three different changes.

"It changes the midfield, it then changes the front ones so the whole thing changes slightly but that's football so we have to deal with that."