Aston Villa comment: Unai Emery's 'contenders' remark made headlines - but most telling is what he didn't say
Forget Unai Emery saying Villa are not top-five contenders - the most telling thing about the interviews following Sunday’s defeat to Everton was the manager’s failure to say “good evening”.
That is when you know he is properly hacked off.
The most recent time Emery forgot his customary politeness was almost a year ago to the day on the French Riviera.
Villa’s 1-0 Champions League defeat at Monaco prompted the manager to make a scathing assessment of his team’s performance, setting the scene for a frenetic end to the transfer window which saw Jhon Duran depart and Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio arrive.
Sunday’s debrief was nowhere nearly so damning. If anything, Emery attempted to look on the bright side and the “not contenders” claim only interested casual observers.
Villa’s manager, for whom English is a second language, means “favourites” and has delivered the same message in almost every press conference for the last three years.
Yet the similarity in mood to Monaco could not be ignored and the final fortnight of the current transfer window is shaping up to be just as important as a year ago, when the arrivals of Rashford and Asensio helped Villa power toward the season’s finish line.
Emery’s greatest fear is of a repeat of two years ago when his team limped through the last third of the campaign and depended almost as much on the failings of Tottenham as their own form to secure a top-four place.
