Unai Emery looks on as Aston Villa manager. (Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images)

'Congratulations' – Unai Emery full of praise for Chelsea, also needs to blame himself

Originally posted on Chelsea News | By Simon Phillips | Last updated Mar 5, 2026 1:30 AM ET

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was full of praise for Chelsea after a 4-1 defeat to the Blues last night, and deservedly so.

Chelsea were absolutely superb last night, especially showing strong character to come back from going a goal down early on. They didn’t stop believing and completely dominated the game.

Villa were terrible though, and a lot of that was down to Emery’s setup for me, not that I am at all complaining as a Chelsea fan! He insisted on playing a very high line and stuck with it all game, which was crazy because Chelsea were consistently exploiting it!

Emery reacts

Emery said: “Today, they [Chelsea] were better than us. Congratulations to Chelsea, but in 29 matches there is still a three point difference between them and us. We are losing it but we must try to keep it.

“What we did wrong was more how we faced Chelsea today. We are now in a bad moment. Chelsea are so happy and deserved to win. The consistency is very important but now we are not being consistent.

“Chelsea played a fantastic match and the first half was the key. We were defending and trying to recover the ball but they had a very good structure and combinations and were creating chances. When they scored the second goal the match changed a little bit.”

The xG stats from the Aston Villa game last night show just how dominant Chelsea were – they battered their opposition away from home with a record.

Chelsea killed the game off with two lovely counter attack goals as Villa totally failed to deal with Garnacho on the counter.

This article first appeared on Chelsea News and was syndicated with permission.

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