Aston Villa boss Unai Emery admits his side will face a “very difficult” run-in to the season after losing to Fulham away on Saturday afternoon.
Ryan Sessegnon got the only goal of the game at Craven Cottage as the Villans struggled to carve out clear cut chances.
Timothy Castagne whipped in a brilliant cross for Sasa Lukic, whose header Emi Martinez could only palm out to Sessegnon. The full-back slotted the ball through Ezri Konsa’s legs and into the net for his third goal of the season.
Villa remain fourth in the Premier League table, but will drop to fifth if Liverpool beat Crystal Palace. Emery admitted it was a lost opportunity for his team to consolidate their position, but has urged his players to pick themselves back up.
Aston Villa rue lost opportunity vs Fulham in top five race
“We have lost a really good opportunity, the players did everything we were planning but we needed to be more clinical,” he told TNT Sports.
“The match was pretty even – sometimes for us sometimes for them. We created a few chances to score, it was very difficult. They have good players and coach and to beat teams like Fulham is for us something we must work on because that can happen.
“We needed fresh legs, they’re tired. The players tried to keep the same game plan we had at the beginning. We had chances with Ollie Watkins, Tammy Abraham but we couldn’t get in their box. We needed to better occupy the spaces in their box. We did everything we were planning but sometimes we are scoring sometimes not like today. It was a tight match and they score one goal and we lost.
“It’s going to be very difficult. My message is the same – keep going, keep trying to get better each week.”
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