{"id":172594,"date":"2025-09-21T21:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T21:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/172594\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T21:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T21:20:07","slug":"emery-lashes-out-at-lazy-aston-villa-after-isidor-earns-point-for-10-man-sunderland-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/172594\/","title":{"rendered":"Emery lashes out at \u2018lazy\u2019 Aston Villa after Isidor earns point for 10-man Sunderland | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Villa finally scored their first Premier League<\/a> goal of the season but, on this quietly concerning evidence, Unai Emery\u2019s quest for last season\u2019s mislaid form is far from over.<\/p>\n

In marked contrast, Sunderland<\/a> were a study in resilience, belief and impressive organisation. R\u00e9gis Le Bris\u2019s side could easily have folded after the 33rd-minute dismissal of their left-back Reinildo Mandava for violent conduct and the rare second-half mistake from Robin Roefs that allowed Matty Cash to shoot Emery\u2019s team ahead from 25 yards.<\/p>\n

Instead, with the central defenders Nordi Mukiele and Omar Alderete outstanding, Le Bris\u2019s 10 men simply regrouped before Wilson Isidor half-volleyed his third league goal of the season to strip the shine from the Villa manager\u2019s weekend.<\/p>\n

With seconds remaining an increasingly agitated Emery was evidently so disgusted by the visitors\u2019 passivity that he turned on his heel, briefly shook Le Bris by the hand and stormed down the tunnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to accept one point but this is not how we want to be as a team,\u201d said Villa\u2019s manager. \u201cWe need to get our identity back. We need to get confident again. I\u2019m frustrated and disappointed. It should have been easier playing against 10 men but we\u2019re not playing with the identity we\u2019ve shown in the last three years. For me, it\u2019s not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emery added: \u201cWe were lazy sometimes in defence. For example, when we conceded we were lazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Le Bris seemed somewhat more content. \u201cIt was a good draw,\u201d he said after his promoted side\u2019s eighth point in five games. \u201cWe started really well. Then came the red card but we reacted very well. We made a new gameplan, the team did really well in a deep block and it became a set piece game. I really liked our reaction to Villa\u2019s goal, it would have been easy to give up but we showed we wanted to suffer together. The value of this point is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 11 men it could easily have been three points, especially as Chris Rigg had shimmered in midfield on his first Premier League start. Poor Rigg was sacrificed as Le Bris sent on an extra defender and switched to a back five after Reinildo\u2019s exit, but there is surely much more to come from the talented 18-year-old.<\/p>\n

With Rigg still on the pitch it had taken some fine defending on Ezri Konsa\u2019s part to deny Isidor as the striker repeatedly threatened Emiliano Mart\u00ednez\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

Morgan Rogers remained worryingly isolated and seemingly unable to link Villa\u2019s attacking play, and Roefs was left largely untested throughout a first half dominated by the moment when Cash slid in to drag Reinildo down and then, inadvertently, fell on top of the former Atl\u00e9tico Madrid defender. Reinildo, the first player from Mozambique to appear in England\u2019s top tier, took so much exception to this that he flicked out his right leg and raked the inside of the right-back\u2019s thigh with his studs.<\/p>\n

Reinildo Mandava\u2019s reaction to a push from Matty Cash earned him a red card. Photograph: Owen Humphreys\/PA<\/p>\n

An early exit ensued, prompting a home reshuffle featuring Rigg\u2019s withdrawal and Dan Ballard\u2019s introduction.<\/p>\n

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One thing that stayed unchanged though was the way Ollie Watkins continued to toil forlornly at centre-forward for Villa. Alderete, a Paraguay defender, very nearly reminded him how to score but directed a header against the underside of the bar.<\/p>\n

Suitably encouraged, Sunderland forced a series of corners and throws \u2013 Mukiele takes a seriously mean long throw \u2013 as Villa could easily have been mistaken for the team at a numerical disadvantage. Tellingly, Emery\u2019s increasingly agitated touchline gesticulations frequently appeared infinitely more dynamic and urgent than his players\u2019 often strangely passive passing and movement.<\/p>\n

The moment in the 67th minute when Cash tried his luck from 25 yards and watched his hard, viciously swerving shot misread by Roefs promised to be a turning point, but it would ultimately prove a false dawn.<\/p>\n

Sunderland\u2019s Netherlands Under-21 goalkeeper looked quietly furious with himself after his attempt at a punch merely left his fingertips grazed by Cash\u2019s strike. Creditably, his teammates refused to fold and the intelligence of Granit Xhaka and Enzo Le F\u00e9e in a necessarily narrow midfield continued to drive Sunderland forward.<\/p>\n

When the former directed the subtlest of cushioned headers over Emery\u2019s backline, Isidor\u2019s low, scoring shot left Mart\u00ednez helpless and his manager incandescent.<\/p>\n

The late moment when Watkins failed to make any sort of contact with the most inviting of balls into the box from the substitute Jadon Sancho seemed a microcosm of his team\u2019s enduring travails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Villa finally scored their first Premier League goal of the season but, on this quietly concerning evidence,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-172594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}