Unai Emery conceded Aston Villa are “in a foul second”, however urged them to “recuperate confidence” following their 4-1 defeat by Chelsea.
The hosts have been comprehensively overwhelmed at Villa Park, regardless of taking the lead by Douglas Luiz’s strike after simply two minutes.
Joao Pedro scored a hat-trick and Cole Palmer was additionally on track, as Villa suffered their fourth defeat in eight Premier League video games (W2 D2).
The Villans misplaced a Premier League residence recreation through which they’d a lead at any stage for the primary time since February 2023 in opposition to Arsenal, ending a run of 45 unbeaten at Villa Park within the competitors when main (W39 D6).
Villa stay in fourth place, however now maintain only a three-point cushion over Chelsea and Liverpool. However, Emery demanded a constructive response from his gamers, who’re subsequent in motion in opposition to Lille within the opening leg of their Europa League last-16 conflict on March 12.
“Chelsea performed a unbelievable match and the primary half was the important thing,” he informed BBC Match of the Day.
“We have been defending and making an attempt to recuperate the ball, however they’d an excellent construction and mixtures and have been creating probabilities. Once they scored the second objective, the match modified slightly bit.
FT. pic.twitter.com/BHUwEBewK4
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) March 4, 2026
“After the third and fourth [goals], it was tougher. There’s nonetheless a three-point distinction between them and us, however now, we’re in a foul second.
“Now, we’ve time to recuperate it and the one method I do know is by discovering options to recuperate confidence, our vitality and tactical construction. That is now my concern.
“Now we have two months in entrance of us, with Europe to play as nicely.”
Following their probably damaging defeat, the Opta supercomputer nonetheless charges Villa’s likelihood of ending within the prime 4 at 63.3%, increased than Manchester United (56.7%), Chelsea (34.6%) and Liverpool (40.7%) amongst these within the chasing pack.