Unai Emery offers no excuses after Aston Villa loss

Joao Pedro’s 87th minute goal condemned Emery’s men to a deserved 1-0 defeat on the south coast and they still need three points from their remaining two matches to seal a fourth place finish after rivals Tottenham were beaten at Liverpool.

Brighton had entered the match on a six-match winless run and their boss Roberto De Zerbi later said he thought Villa, who played a Europa Conference League semi-final against Olympiacos less than 72 hours previously, had looked tired.

Emery, who saw Morgan Rogers become the latest player to be struck down by injury agreed it was a possibility but added: “It is not an excuse for us [being tired]. Today we lost and we didn’t deserve more.

“We competed and we were focused trying to compete and stop them. They made more chances than us.”

Pedro headed home the rebound after Robin Olsen, deputising for the injured Emi Martinez, had saved his spot-kick.

Olsen had earlier denied the striker and Pascal Gross one-on-one with lacklustre Villa failing to forced his opposite number, Bart Verbruggen, into a serious save all afternoon.

Emery described the award of the penalty as “soft” after Simon Adingra fell under the challenge of Ezri Konsa. The boss felt the incident was no different to that which saw Morgan Rogers go down in the first half, when no spot-kick was awarded.

But he said: “Always I am very respectful with the referee. Maybe if VAR is reviewing the action then it is difficult.

“But always I respect it. Even we had a possible penalty in the first half against Morgan Rogers.

“I watched both and they are similar, even maybe Morgan’s was more clear. But I respect always the referees. Always they are responsible and I accept their decisions.”

Olsen, who conceded four times against Olympiacos, responded by delivering arguably his most impressive performance in a Villa shirt. Emery said: “He was brilliant, brilliant. He played last week against Chelsea in the second half when we were struggling and we conceded two goals. Even then he saved one point.

“On Thursday we lost and conceded goals but we had no doubts about him.

“Today he showed us again. He played fantastic. We were close to drawing the match because he played fantastic.”

Villa now turn attention to Thursday’s return leg in Greece as they look to overturn a 4-2 deficit.

Emery continued: “Now the most important thing is to recover. When you are playing lots of matches then there is more risk to get players injured. Like today Morgan.

“Even like that, we are being competitive. We played against Arsenal two weeks ago in similar circumstances. Today we had the same idea doing our game plan. We tried to play but we didn’t get a good result and we didn’t deserve more.

“Overall we are being positive. We can proud of the players and the club. The most important thing now is to rest. Do we think about Thursday? No, it is to rest.

“We need to try and manage the matches we will play. It is more difficult now on Thursday against Olympiacos, but we will be there trying to do something different. Then, Villa Park next Monday against Liverpool. We are getting the last moments of the season really with the objective.”