Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said his side’s first-half performance in their 3-1 win over Wolves was the “worst” of his reign at Villa Park.
Villa appeared to be suffering a Champions League hangover against their midlands rivals as a lacklustre showing saw them trail to Matheus Cunha’s 25th-minute opener.
But they came to life after the break and goals from Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Jhon Duran in the final 20 minutes saw them win for a fourth time in the Premier League this season.
“I’m very happy, very happy, we were suffering in the first half more than normal,” Emery said. “I think it is the worst match we played from the first time I arrived here until now.
“We didn’t play with energy, we were a little bit passive. We planned the match trying to be more active, trying to impose on the match.
“It was a very poor performance in the first half. The second half changed a little bit, we tried to push the players to be more active in the press.
“I like to play always with our positioning but we had to play with our heart and transmitting our energy and we did it.”
Villa loss captain John McGinn to a hamstring injury in the first half and Emery thinks he could be out for a period of time.
He added: “It’s his hamstring, he had one last year in January a hamstring injury and today it’s less than that but he will be not available for a few weeks.”
Wolves also suffered an injury as defender Yerson Mosquera was carried off with what looked a serious knee problem.
Mosquera will have a scan on Sunday and boss Gary O’Neil has his fingers crossed it is not as bad as it looked.
“I have no real information, but it just doesn’t look good,” he said. “It was obviously a big blow in the game for us and it would be a big blow, obviously an area of the pitch we are already short in and it’s not good at this moment.”
Wolves are still waiting for their first win of the season and suffered another late capitulation after conceding two goals in the final 15 minutes to lose against Newcastle last week.
“As well as we played first half, when we could have probably bit further in front, no one comes to Aston Villa and wins at a canter,” O’Neil added.
“The second half was never going to look like the first half was. And the lads were aware that it might get tough and we might have to fight and scrap.
“They’re a resilient group, and they give everything, but a couple of slips and we’ve been punished for again today.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here