Unai Emery bemoans VAR after draw
Unai Emery felt VAR was guilty of getting too involved after Villa were held to a 1-1 draw by Sheffield United and missed the chance to go top of the Premier League.
Nicolo Zaniolo netted his first league goal for Villa in the seventh minute of stoppage time to cancel out Cameron Archer’s opener and save Emery’s men from defeat.
But the draw still ended Villa’s perfect home league record this season, with the main focus on referee Anthony Taylor’s decision to chalk off a 59th minute Leon Bailey strike, following a lengthy video review.
Taylor adjudged Jacob Ramsey had fouled Sheffield United goalkeeper Wes Foderingham in the build-up but Emery, typically loathe to criticise officials, felt the decision was wrong.
He explained: "It was not the correct decision but I always accept the VAR. I think today VAR was too much and for the goal it was a second action. We recovered the ball and then we score. It was not necessary to review this."
Villa saw VAR rule against them on four other occasions during the 90 minutes, with Ollie Watkins denied a first half penalty despite appearing to be pushed over in the box by Vinicius Souza.
Home substitute Jhon Duran, however, escaped censure when he caught a visiting player with his arm.
“I am very happy,” said Emery. “I am very proud. To win all these matches in a row was a great achievement.
“They defended well. We controlled the game for 70 minutes but after the disallowed goal we got a little bit upset.”
