Furious Unai Emery tears into 'lazy' Aston Villa players after 'frustrating' draw with 10-man Sunderland

Aston Villa are still looking for their first win of the 2025-26 campaign after a disappointing draw at Sunderland on Sunday. The hosts were reduced to 10 men after Reinildo Mandava picked up a red card just past the half-hour mark. Matty Cash then broke the deadlock in the second half with a long-range strike for Villa, only to see his side concede just eight minutes later as Wilson Isidor scored the equaliser.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Villa boss Emery fumed: "We are not playing like I want. Of course, we have to adapt some players. We will need time with them, but the other players know how we want to control the game with the ball more than without the ball. We were conceding a lot of chances. Chances starting with their goalkeeper, long ball, second action, throw-in, corner, in our box and of course, we are conceding chances. “It was starting with the goalkeepers. And why?

"Because we were not dominating control of the game with one player more, doing passes, making passes and taking the right moment to attack them. We were not doing it. We were lazy sometimes in defence really. Lazy. For example, when we concede, we were lazy. Maybe it is the consequences, we are not feeling dominating, we are not feeling playing our style."

The Spanish coach added: "Normally the players, they have attitude. But sometimes, because maybe they are a little bit upset or they are maybe a little bit not feeling good, they are not fighting. This is not something individually I can tell them like a punishment. It's something that, collectively, we have to try to understand and to try to feel better. I am not today frustrated and disappointed for the result, I am frustrated and disappointed for how we played and how we are not playing or feeling comfortable with our style. We have to try to recover our personality."

Emery will now hope that Aston Villa can bounce back strongly when they kick off their Europa League campaign against Bologna at home on Thursday. Villa will host Fulham in the Premier League three days later.