Unai Emery 'not accepting' Ipswich draw as Aston Villa boss left frustrated

Unai Emery was left disappointed after Aston Villa were held to a 2-2 draw vs Ipswich (Image: Getty)

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has admitted the 2-2 draw with Ipswich was a fair result, albeit tinged with disappointment as Villa missed out on going top of the Premier League.

Villa appeared primed for a pre-Champions League boost and potential rise to joint-first place following goals from Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins, which initially quashed Delap's early strike.

However, Kieran McKenna's Ipswich clawed their way back into the game with Delap's stunning 72nd-minute individual goal, ensuring parity at Portman Road.

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Emery said after the final whistle: "I think the result was fair and even we could lose the match at the end. I am not accepting the result, the point in my idea how I want to raise our level and our demands, but I accept it in our process.

"Overall we have 13 points, but we were optimistic about the possibility to be with Liverpool with 15 points."

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He also noted the challenges presented by newly-promoted teams: "We can accept how difficult it is in this league to play against teams like Ipswich. After they are promoted, they are excited, they are motivated and they are playing with confidence.

"This is the difficulty we face in 90 minutes, but the first half we played even better than I planned before in stopping their game-plan, in stopping their capacity to push us.

"But in the second half, they play like I was planning in the first half. In this moment of course we needed to be stronger than we were."

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Attention now turns to midweek when Bayern come to town. When pressed on whether their opponents' extra 24 hours of preparation could lead to his squad being fatigued following their thrilling draw with Ipswich, Emery was quick to dismiss such concerns with a quip.

"We are going to suspend the match on Wednesday," he joked. "What do we want? We want to play in Europe? We want to play matches on Sunday and Wednesday? We want to try to get to the same level they have on other teams like (Manchester) City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle, Tottenham? We want it.

"If we don't want? OK, we are not playing in Europe and we are resting all the week. Fantastic for everybody, but it is the challenge we have; the players, myself, the supporters, even the journalist! We are going to be tired, but this is the level."

Unai Emery 'not accepting' Ipswich draw as Aston Villa boss left frustrated

Unai Emery 'not accepting' Ipswich draw as Aston Villa boss left frustrated

Unai Emery 'not accepting' Ipswich draw as Aston Villa boss left frustrated

Unai Emery 'not accepting' Ipswich draw as Aston Villa boss left frustrated

Unai Emery 'not accepting' Ipswich draw as Aston Villa boss left frustrated