Unai Emery celebrates Aston Villa anniversary by outlining new challenge to players

Unai Emery at and said: “There’s more work to be done.”

Cherries’ striker Evanilson ruined any thoughts of turning this into a happy occasion with a leveller ten seconds from the end of extra time. His well-placed header undid large chunks of a game with which can be rightly proud.

Given the enormous strides taken under the Spaniard since he inherited a relegation-threatened team from , perhaps it was time for a moment of internal back-slapping, if nothing else. But Emery isn’t built like that. He did say his team were ‘fantastic,’ and he he was ‘really happy’ overall.

A last-gasp equaliser dampened his mood. But he was never going to do anything other than suggest improvement.

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All this on a day when Villa could have jumped into third. And on the back of a week when they sat atop the groupings. He said: “Today, we had the opportunity to get three points, to be in the top four. We got only one.

“Other teams are strong. , , . Others as well, , , , , … We have to understand how we are going to keep at our level.

“I demand a lot of myself. I am disappointed because there is work still to do. Emotionally, what I want is to control ourselves when the moments are more difficult. When your opponents are pushing and to be strong in our own minds - to keep the same focus.

“I’m really happy with the team and with the players. And I know we can have moments like that. The result today was not deserved. Why? We have to get better. Even playing well is sometimes not enough.”

Harsh it may be, but successful battle-hardened Champions League teams are used to the bump and grind. Tricky tests in Europe followed by matches against teams - such as in this instance - who have had a full week to prepare. Last season’s campaign in the Europa Conference League has helped bridge that gap.

And although skipper John McGinn believes - and it carries weight - that the club’s subsitutes’ bench is the strongests in Villa’s history - they have to show it.

So far, Villa’s form following their debut campaign in the Champions League has been patchy.

They were second best against for an hour after beating Young Boys. Then, Erik ten Hag escaped without a bloodied nose four days after Villa defeated . An energetic Bologna side was dispatched. And although there can be no doubt Villa deserved three points against Andoni Iraola’s side, the fact is that they didn’t get them.

Iraola said: “I was happy to score in the last minute and recover one point in a very difficult place. They played better than us - we played the game they wanted us to play - but we competed really well.

“We had 15 minutes when they were much better than us. But the substitutes gave us another level of energy. And we finished well in the last 15 minutes.”

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