Unai Emery explains his 'issue' with Seamus Coleman and makes Everton points deduction admission

Unai Emery played down his 'small issue' with Seamus Coleman after Aston Villa were held to a goalless stalemate against Everton.

The Toffees dug in to earn a 0-0 draw and move a point clear of the Premier League relegation zone - while Villa missed out on a chance to go joint-top of the table. Both sides had a goal disallowed for offside, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin spurned a golden chance for Everton on the stroke of half-time and home keeper Jordan Pickford made two good stops before the interval.

The game was stop-start throughout and tensions flared at times. In the opening 45 minutes, Everton captain Seamus Coleman and Villa manager Emery had a disagreement on the touchline while there was a melee in the second period after James Tarkowski's robust tackle on Alex Moreno.

On the incident with Coleman, Emery said: "We didn’t speak a lot, just a little bit. I had a small issue with Coleman at the start, but it was OK. We were asking and demanding one ball for us, but it was not relevant. I respect him. I respect Everton and the coach.

"After the decision of the Premier League taking off 10 points of them in the table is really difficult to try to come back again, try to compete and recover and that's what they are doing."

On the result, Emery said: We conceded one chance in the first half and always we needed before and we will need the goalkeeper. He saved very good actions.

"Then, in 90 minutes we controlled the game. We stopped them, their high press and aggressiveness coming to us. We stopped it with good positioning and being calm, trying to get with good passes and trying to drive with the ball.

"We controlled the game like we wanted and we created more than them and maybe more than usual away. We weren’t clinical and maybe six times we got into the box.

"We deserve more than we achieved but I am happy because we are increasing our level and progressively getting better and we are being very demanding of how we want to build the team, our structure tactically and I think we are in this process."