Matt Maher: Time running out for Unai Emery to spark Aston Villa's Premier League season back to life
Villa might be on their worst Premier League run for more than three years but judging by Unai Emery’s demeanour, you’d struggle to have guessed it.
In the aftermath of Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Manchester United, the Villa manager’s mood bordered somewhere between the philosophical to the mildly positive.
There was obvious disappointment at the result and frustration at his team’s failure to stay cool at the moment, midway through the second half, when the game briefly seemed theirs for the taking.
But by and large, the message was the same as it has been over the past month, with Emery emphasising the need to “keep balance”.
If he and his team are still managing to do that, then an increasing number of Villa’s fanbase are not.
Sunday’s defeat, their team’s third on the spin in the league, was the cause of only heightened anxiety over their prospects of retaining a top-five position between now and the end of the season.
Taking the emotion out of the equation, in some ways Villa’s performance at Old Trafford ranked among their more encouraging of 2026.
