Unai Emery spoke to the BBC about the match of the day after Aston Villa’s defeat against Liverpool: “We played as we had planned before the game. Of course, the result is not good, but we have to stay consistent in our structure, in how we play and in how we react to things in the game.

“We had opportunities to score, maybe a possible penalty at the end, which I think with the VAR was a penalty, but hey, we have to accept the referee’s decisions.

“When they scored the second goal, the game was more or less over, but until that second goal we had chances to score. We were good defensively, we were patient and we felt comfortable even when they dominated the ball. We have to try and maintain our process and I think in some areas we are below our level from last year.

On what was better today than the last games: “Against Tottenham we played 70 good minutes and in 20 minutes we lost. The defeat was more than we deserved. Today we maintained our structure, we didn’t concede too many opportunities and we got into their area with the transitions.

“We were not clinical in the attacking third, but we are building the team and the performances. It was not enough to get points here, but I am sure we are moving forward. Of course we have to improve, but we are on the right path.”