LONDON — Aston Villa manager Unai Emery dismissed suggestions he intentionally snubbed Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta after Tuesday nightS Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium, a game Arsenal won 4-1.
Gunners’ Dominance and a Post-Match Question
arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table to five points after a dominant second-half performance against Aston Villa.
- Arsenal defeated Aston Villa 4-1, fueled by four second-half goals.
- The result snapped Villa’s impressive 11-game winning streak.
- Unai emery explained his speedy exit after the match was simply part of his routine.
- Mikel Arteta downplayed the lack of a post-match handshake, calling it “part of the game.”
The incident occurred immediately following the final whistle, when Emery swiftly headed for the tunnel without exchanging the customary handshake with Arteta. The Gunners’ victory was sealed by goals from Gabriel Magalhães, Martín zubimendi, Leandro Trossard, and Gabriel Jesus, while Ollie Watkins scored a consolation goal for villa in added time.
What prompted the discussion was a video circulating on social media showing Arteta appearing to wait for Emery near the touchline, only to be bypassed as the Villa manager made his way down the tunnel.
Arteta, who was seen waiting for Emery near the touchline, also dismissed any notion of a slight. “No, that’s OK. That’s part of the game, not an issue at all,” he told reporters.
This wasn’t the first instance of Emery bypassing a handshake with Arteta. The Villa manager also didn’t shake arteta’s hand following Villa’s victory over Arsenal in December 2023.
Villa’s Second-Half Struggles
Despite the defeat, Emery found positives in his team’s performance, notably in the first half. “Football,” he said, reflecting on the match. “We competed fantastically in the first half and we were getting our momentum, creating chances, corners.we were defending vrey well when we needed it. We didn’t concede a corner in the first half.”
He added,”One or two chances thay had,but we were against a [better] team in the league and how they’re performing here and how they are with the supporters and with the crowd. Later we were feeling comfortable and in the second half we conceded the first goal.”
Emery also pointed to an injury to Amadou Onana as a potential turning point.”We conceded the second goal,maybe as well it didn’t help us that [Amadou] Onana got injured as he’s critically important for us in pieces and in the middle.”
“And then we didn’t give up and we continued trying to compete like we are doing. We conceded another two goals and then even for me we were not giving up and we scored one goal and we had another chance and we finished the match.”
Aston Villa will look to rebound on Saturday when they host Nottingham Forest at Villa Park.
