Unai Emery makes honest Anfield claim after Liverpool’s victory over Aston Villa

Unai Emery felt that Aston Villa’s lack of composure in front of goal was their downfall against Liverpool.

The Reds earned a 3-0 victory at Anfield on Sunday to extend their unbeaten start to the Premier League season. Dominik Szoboszlai opened the scoring after just three minutes before a Matty Cash own goal on 22 minutes extended the lead. However, Villa did have chances of their own before half-time with John McGinn blazing over and Leon Bailey prodding wide from close range.

Then just moments in the second half, Cash had a header well kept out by Liverpool keeper Alisson Becker before Mo Salah sealed the three points for the home side in the 55th minute.

Emery admitted that winning at Anfield is always tough although he was disappointed how Villa failed to take their opportunities. The Villans boss said: "It's difficult to win here (Anfield), it is difficult. The first half was the key. After the first goal we conceded, we were not bad. We created chances. We were trying to impose our positioning, it was not easy to do it, but when we were pressing we got in their box and we created four chances to score in the first half. We were not clinical and defensively we were weak in some moments. They were clinical and 2-0 was not what we deserved in the first half.

"The second half we were speaking about scoring one goal and having the possibility to get back. We had two chances at the beginning of the second half, but we didn't score. They created a chance in transition when the match was so tight. They scored the third goal and then the match finished.

"We tried to be focused in our game plan because here, like in Newcastle, we lost the last 30 minutes with five goals and really, I didn't want that today after the first goal. I can accept winning, but I can't accept to let them score more goals against us."