Emery content with West Ham draw

Unai Emery was content to walk away with a draw from London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

West Ham United’s Michail Antonio gave the hosts a first half lead before Aston Villa substitute Nicolò Zaniolo levelled the scores in the second half.

Emery felt it was a fair result on the balance of play.

“I’m happy,” he said.

“In the first half they deserved more – they didn’t control the game but they scored one goal and we didn’t create chances.

“The second half was completely different. We dominated better, got our players behind their midfielders better than the first half and were getting into the box. We were winning corners and creating chances.

“We didn’t score from a lot of the chances we created, but once we scored we were continuing and trying to win the match. This draw we have to accept.”

Villa head into the final international break of the season in a good place, sitting fourth in the Premier League.

And Emery will now begin to focus on a local derby against Wolves in two weeks.

He said: “We are fourth and we are going to wait until game 32, 33 and 34 to set again our objective.  

“We are there and we have to be happy and consistent in our way. Now, we’re going to stop for the break and we have more players going with their national teams, which is good because we are increasing the level within the squad.

“The other players and coaches will rest a little bit and then we have the new challenge at home against Wolverhampton in two weeks. I’m going to study from today thinking about that match.”