Unai Emery hits out at 'not fair' VAR call after Aston Villa defeat

Emery took aim at video assistant Paul Tierney after Villa’s Premier League title hopes were dealt a blow by Sunday’s controversial loss.

Abraham, making his second debut for the club, thought he cancelled out Dango Ouatarra’s opener when he tapped home four minutes into the second half.

But the goal was eventually chalked off when Tierney deemed Leon Bailey had taken the ball out of play 19 seconds earlier at the other end of the pitch.

Despite replays failing to show conclusive evidence, on-field referee Tim Robinson told supporters the ball was “factually” out of play.

Emery said: “I think it is not fair. If the assistant is watching it. There are a lot of actions and small circumstances which can change one goal.

“Of course, I accept it. But for me it is not fair.”

The Villa boss continued: Of course, the referees are so, so demanding in trying to correct everything they are doing, or where they can improve.

“For me it is not fair. My explanation is it is one action after a long time. If the assistant referee did not see it we must continue playing. 

“For VAR it is difficult to analyse and so tight as well. I think the problem is the VAR should not be asking in this situation. I accept it but it is not fair.

“I can’t say anything more about it! It is football and of course Brentford played fantastic with one players less than us. 

“We are frustrated, disappointed, as well with the referee and VAR for his decision. But maybe sometime we can win matches like that.”

Villa have now suffered back-to-back home league defeats under Emery for the first time since February, 2023 and are now seven points behind leaders Arsenal.

Ouattara, scorer of the only goal in last August’s loss at Brentford, repeated the trick with a fine strike in the second minute of first half stoppage time.

Bees forward Kevin Schade had been sent-off three minutes earlier after planting his foot in Matty Cash’s lower midriff but Villa could not take advantage despite dominating the rest of the match.

“How we played in the 90 minutes and how they (Brentford) competed, it can happen,” said Emery.

“The match was tight for both teams. When the red card came the match was changing but they scored so quick.

“The second half we tried something different and tried to be patient. We tried to get in their box with our quality and did everything to score - right side, left side, centrally, corners.

“We only had one clear chance with Leon Bailey and we also scored but VAR was there.

“I can’t say nothing about the effort of the players. Of course we are frustrated but now is the moment I want to have balance.”