Unai Emery was proud of players and supporters after Aston Villa’s unbeaten home run in the Premier League stretched to 16 games.
After 15 consecutive wins, the home side were staring at defeat after Cameron Archer’s late goal put Sheffield United 1-0 up.
But the Villans, backed by vociferous support from the stands, fought until the end and equalised via Nicolò Zaniolo in stoppage time.
“I’m very happy with how we finished today after 15 matches winning in a row because each match is very difficult to win,” Emery said.
“Today they defended very well. We were controlling the match in the first half like we prepared. We didn’t score but we needed to be patient.
“I think the goal they refused with VAR is the moment we were being a little bit upset in our minds and we lost a little bit of control of the game. They created one or two chances to score and we needed to avoid chances like that.
“When they scored it was very difficult but we reacted very well, we scored and we drew. I’m very happy now we have 39 points.
“We are going to focus on Manchester United. I’m proud of our work, our players and our supporters.”
Villa bossed possession and played most of the match in United’s half of the pitch as the visitors sat deep and defended stubbornly.
Leon Bailey saw a goal disallowed on the hour mark, and Emery felt that moment played a part in the Blades coming into the game late on.
He said: “We are playing now some matches with teams who are defensively very strong, very low and it was difficult to attack a defence like that.
“They were doing very, very well and playing a slow match. We needed to adapt to that. We did. The way was to score one goal when we were attacking and we didn’t do it.
“In the second half I think the team were playing like we talked about in the dressing room, but the VAR refused our goal and that was the moment we were upset and lost a bit of control.
“We’re going to analyse it and we have to understand why we lost this control. Overall, I think it’s a good point.”