Unai Emery blown away by Liverpool partnership who Aston Villa had no answer to - 'best in the world'
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Unai Emery declared Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk as ‘one of the best players in the world’ after Aston Villa’s loss at Anfield.
The Reds earned a 2-0 victory to move five points clear at the top of the Premier League table. Following Manchester City’s 2-1 loss at Brighton, Liverpool took full advantage with Darwin Nunez scoring in the 20th minute before Mo Salah bagging on 84 minutes.
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Hide AdVilla proved threatening from set-pieces, with Amadou Onana and Diego Carlos having headers saved by Reds goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher in quick succession. But from open play, the visitors lacked a cutting edge. They are winless in their past five matches in all competitions and suffered three successive defeats.
And although Villa finished fourth and one place behind Liverpool in the Premier League last season, Emery believes the gap between the two clubs has increased this term.
“They are fighting one of the best players in the world with Konate”, said Villa Park boss Emery. “We needed a little bit more to threaten them and have real chances to score. We have one very clear at the beginning of the second half and then we tried but they are one of the better players defensively in the world and it’s not easy.
“This is the level they have - a high level. The level we have is a high level but there is still one gap between Liverpool and between us. This gap, last year we were close, two years ago we were close. This year, the gap is bigger. How we will face them on the field, I think, while the gap is still better than us, we can use the distance in 38 matches. Today, it was the 11th. We try to be consistent, demanding, recover some players, to feel confidence and this is the level we have.”
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Hide AdOn Villa’s performance, Emery added: “We played with the plan we had. To get some points here is very difficult and maybe we needed more. Even dominating some moments of the match, they were creating some chances in transition and we have to work to improve it. We conceded two easy transitions for them from corners.
“We also created two good chances from corners and we competed like we needed to get something but we didn’t get points here. I’m happy with the match we played. We have to try and keep balance and be consistent like we were last year. We are some points under the level we had last year, but the Premier League is very difficult and it’s tight with other teams in the table.
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