Aston Villa slammed after what BBC Sport pundit spotted at Villa Park, it was ‘poor’
Aston Villa have been slammed by Alan Hutton after Unai Emery’s side missed out on another chance to lift silverware as they crashed out of the FA Cup with a “poor” defeat to Chelsea.
Villa had taken Mauricio Pochettinho’s side to a replay in the fourth round but were well beaten at Villa Park on Wednesday (7 February) as goals from Conor Gallagher, Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez ensured Moussa Diaby’s strike was just a consolation.
Having been knocked out of the Carabao Cup in the early stages by Everton, the only silverware available to Emery and his side this season is now the Premier League title, which remains unlikely, or the Europa Conference League.
Hutton has blamed Aston Villa’s exit on a lack of consistency and believes that while Chelsea were impressive, Villa will regret letting another shot at a trophy pass them by at such an important stage of the season.
“I just think recent weeks have been inconsistent,” Hutton told Villa News.
“I think that’s what it comes down to. The flip side to that is that Chelsea on their day can beat anyone. I know they’ve been inconsistent, but I thought they played really well.
“It’s kind of easy that when you fall behind by so many goals that you play with a bit of freedom and you start creating opportunities and I think that’s kind of what happened.
“But it was a poor result, there’s no getting away from it. They’ll want to bounce back and bounce back quickly but they wanted to do well in the cup competitions and this is yet another one that they’re out of so they’ll be really disappointed.”
One chance of silverware left for Unai Emery and Aston Villa this season?
A number of pundits have criticised Emery in the past for not taking the domestic trophies in England seriously enough, namely Gabby Agbonlahor after Aston Villa crashed out of the Carabao Cup earlier this season.
However, the Spanish manager couldn’t have named a much stronger squad for Wednesday’s clash with Chelsea and the blame doesn’t lie at his door for Villa’s premature exit in this competition.
It seems unlikely that Emery and Villa will be lifting the Premier League trophy come the end of the season so while they will be focusing on finishing in the Champions League places, they have to prioritise winning the Europa Conference League to end this barren run.
In other Aston Villa news, Hutton has shared his verdict on reports surrounding Leon Bailey’s contract extension at Villa Park
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