Unai Emery was happy with Aston Villa’s performance as his side shared a 2-2 draw against Liverpool, but also reflected on not collecting all three points against the Premier League leaders.
The hosts led at the break thanks to Youri Tielemans’ volley and Ollie Watkins’ header, turning the clash around after Mohamed Salah’s opener just before the half hour.
Chances continued to flow at either end as Trent Alexander-Arnold’s deflected strike levelled matters for the Reds in the second half.
Darwin Nunez missed a close-range opportunity to fire the Reds ahead, while Jacob Ramsey saw his late effort ruled out for offside before Donyell Malen fired agonisingly wide with almost the last kick of a breathless, action-packed encounter.
Emery’s side proved more than a match for high-flying Liverpool and extended their unbeaten record in the league at Villa Park to 13 matches since August.
And the Villa manager admitted a point apiece was fair reflection of the competitive clash.
“I’m happy with the match we played and how we performed,” he told VillaTV.
“We’re in a new era, a new way.
“We’re not happy drawing at home, of course, we did against Ipswich Town on Saturday and again we repeated with a draw.
“I think the result was fair, because I think both teams were creating chances and sometimes dominating one team and then another team.
“More or less, over 90 minutes, I think the result is fair.
“But, of course, we wanted to win and the most important thing was we showed until the last minute how we were pushing, how we were attacking, trying to get a third goal.
“And we tried until the last moment, but the result is not enough.
“We can be happy with how we played, how we performed.
“Some players as well, how they’re progressively getting better with us. And recovering some injured players as well.
“We keep going, our focus now is Saturday against Chelsea. At home, we’ve only lost one match against Arsenal in the Premier League.
“But we’re drawing a lot of matches and we have to try and get three points.”
