WATCH: '39 points... it's amazing' - Unai Emery gives very awkward interview after seeing Aston Villa blow two-goal lead over Man Utd

Villa squandered a 2-0 lead, allowing the Red Devils to stage a second-half comeback with goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund at Old Trafford on Tuesday evening. John McGinn and Leander Dendoncker scored to set Villa up for the three points but a late collapse left Emery with his head in his hands. However, the manager refused to be drawn on the negative side of his team's display and instead focused on the 39 points his team have amassed at the mid-way point of the season.

When asked by the presenter of Amazon Prime Sports about what went wrong, Emery replied: "Thirty-nine points. It’s amazing."

The Villa boss added with a wry smile: "Now you’re asking me in another direction! Good, good, only analyse tonight. Sixty minutes, fantastic. Fantastic."

After an awkward start to the interview, Emery acknowledged the difficult challenge of facing a side like United away from home and stressed the need for his team to learn from the experience. "Manchester United, when they scored the first goal, the supporters here, they came back, the atmosphere, pushing them. And they have very good players," he said. "Of course, we had to be demanding but accepting as well. One team like Manchester United here can come back like they did. I want to analyse this match with the first 60 minutes we played, very good. Then of course we have to take experiences and we have to improve in the level we want to get, the level we want to achieve. Our players are now taking experiences. Manchester United, they have more experiences than us, more time being in the top level, the players and the club and the team. We move on. In the end, very disappointed, but accepting, and trying to understand all our first part of the season."

The loss at Old Trafford was just Villa's fourth league defeat this season and their first since November 5. The Lions are still sitting in third position, just three points behind leaders Liverpool and eight ahead of sixth-placed United.

Villa fans still believe that their team are title contenders, but Emery has his feet firmly rooted to the ground.

"Now, you can ask me if we are contender to win a title. [Are you?]," he asked. "No, but not now, two weeks ago I was thinking the same. Why? Because we are playing seven top teams, they are contenders more than us. Of course we are being consistent and better than a lot of teams being in the top position, but 19 matches today, and today we missed a great opportunity to be consistently in our way against the top 10 teams being there. But that happens like tonight, the reaction after the first goal conceded, we reacted with two good chances. Today, we could win and we could lose, and we lost. Move on, be demanding. I told the players it’s fantastic the first part of the season, but I want more. And if they want more, we have to work hard to get it."

Villa will hope to return to winning ways against Burnley on Saturday and extend their recent unbeaten record at home.