Aston Villa comment: Unai Emery's 'contenders' remark made headlines - but most telling is what he didn't say

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.

Worrying injuries to Boubacar Kamara and John McGinn have unfortunate echoes of that period and go some way to explaining the manager’s current frustrations.

That in itself plays into a larger feeling of Villa’s luck having turned. Sunday’s performance was nowhere near so bad as has been suggested in some quarters. On another day, Morgan Rogers could quite easily have celebrated his 100th appearance with a hat-trick.

But the chances which were flying in a few weeks ago suddenly aren’t. Villa have gone two matches without scoring at the same time as Arsenal and instead of seizing the opportunity to move to within two points of the leaders, are now seven points behind.

Above everything, you suspect most of Emery’s annoyance was directed toward himself.

There is no point trying to search the manager’s words for a veiled message in the direction of the board.

That is simply not how things work at Villa, where Emery has been given complete control and must own both successes and failures.

“What Unai wants, Unai gets,” is the slogan at Bodymoor Heath and it applies to all areas, including transfers where the club has always done everything it can within the Premier League and Uefa’s financial rules to provide what he wants.

No-one is signed or sold without his say so.

Villa’s issues with the regulations are well-documented but regardless of their fairness, the reality is it lowers the margin for error in the market.

In that context, one of the most remarkable things about Villa’s season is their success in spite of a summer window where, at least in terms of attacking signings, they badly missed the mark.

Harvey Elliott, who joined on a season-long loan from Liverpool, was discarded after a month to avoid triggering a £35m appearance-based buy clause.

Another loanee on big wages, Jadon Sancho, has struggled to make an impact and though no-one could question Evann Guessand’s attitude, the Ivory Coast international is yet to show anywhere near the kind of quality to justify a fee which has the potential to reach £28m.

Though it would be slightly harsh to label both complete non-factors in Villa’s season, neither Guessand or Sancho has set-up or scored a goal in the Premier League.

Sunday’s match, which saw Sancho absent with his second bout of illness this season, felt like the moment mis-steps of the summer finally caught up with Emery. Villa had no firepower off the bench when chasing the game.

The fact it came just days after Donyell Malen, second top scorer and one of only three players to have featured in every match, had left for Roma added further to the sense of misfortune.

Emery last week described Malen’s sale as “making sense” and while it might not have appeared to make much on Sunday, it needs to by the time the window closes on February 2. Villa and their manager must be sharp in their work.