Unai Emery rejects offered reason for Aston Villa loss

The 4-0 defeat cut fourth-placed Villa’s lead over their rivals to just two points having played a game more, though Emery made a point of reminding his players they are still in a good position with 10 matches of their season remaining.

He also dismissed the notion fatigue was a factor after Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou claimed he sensed Villa were tiring toward the end of the first half.

The visitors scored four in the second period, while the hosts also saw skipper John McGinn sent-off but asked if he agreed with Postecoglou’s assessment, Emery replied: “Not really. I think we were ready to play and not be tired.

“The circumstances in the second half were they got the first goal and the second goal was a mistake we made.

“At 2-0 we tried to push and score but to change I put fresh players on but the red card changed the match completely.”

McGinn was shown a straight red card by referee Chris Kavanagh for a scything down Destiny Udogie and now faces a three-match ban, placing further strain on Emery’s already injury-hit squad.

Villa next host Ajax in the second leg of their Europa Conference League last-16 tie on Thursday, before travelling to West Ham next Sunday for their final match before the international break.

“I did not speak a lot with the players,” said Emery, who defended his decision to switch to a five-man defence, “I told them keep going, move on and think about Thursday and then the game against West Ham.”

The head coach continued: “We are building our mentality. We were progressively getting better and being emotionally mature.

“We have to try and control emotion when we are under pressure. The maturity of the players here is getting better.

“Today is one drop in the control of the emotion I am trying to build. We lost so, so easy the second half our moment to make the game calm, playing and trying to come back.

“The red card makes it more difficult and of course we will analyse but the most important in the Premier League is to be consistent for 38 matches.

“Of course we are sad and disappointed but we are fourth.”