Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was in a prickly mood as he bit back at Sky Sports reporter Patrick Davison in a fiery end to his post-match interview at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Emery had just seen his Villa side twice throw away a two-goal lead against Manchester United – with Joshua Zirkzee and Patrick Dorgu scoring in stoppage time to secure a remarkable 4-4 draw.
The Villa boss was spotted storming down the touchline before the full-time whistle and after Dorgu’s dramatic 97th-minute equaliser – with play continuing for another two minutes.
And the Villa boss, already exasperated at being asked ‘more questions,’ did not take kindly to being asked if he was emotional about the late equaliser or if he felt it was unfair.
When asked if his walking off was an emotional reaction, he responded: ‘No emotion. They scored in minute 96 and there were six minutes added. I [thought] the match was finishing.’
And then when asked whether the award of the goal was unfair, he replied: ‘No, no. Not unfair. Please.
Unai Emery was in a prickly mood towards the end of his post match interview with Sky Sports
Emery had just stormed down the tunnel at Old Trafford after Aston Villa threw away a 4-2 lead in stoppage time
Emery took exception to being asked ‘more questions’ by Sky reporter Patrick Davison
‘They scored the goal in minute 96. You were making the question [about why] I left before. Because the minute 96 and 30 seconds, was when we started the kick-off.’
Emery ended the interview making light of his ‘poor’ English, and then sarcastically asking if there were ‘more questions’ before an ironic ‘Have a good Sunday’ as he walked out of the interview.
Villa’s director of football operations Damian Vidagany complained on social media about the legitimacy of United’s last-gasp equaliser.
He accused United goalkeeper Senne Lammens – who went up for the corner – of impeding his Villa counterpart Zion Suzuki as he looked to punch the ball clear.
After Roy Keane said ‘football is a contact sport,’ he posted on X: ‘To put in context this convenient narrative of “contact sport” we’ve been told by referees during the summer that this season to go to unbalance or push the GK on purpose on the six-yard box was not going to be allowed anymore.
‘Lammens did not even look at the ball, went straight to do a contact with the hip over Zion.
‘Having said that we played good match and we must do better than last six minutes. We will do and we will improve.
‘But the rules are the rules and must be respected. That is a fact.’
Michael Carrick was involved in a spiky interview with Sky Sports about his Man United future
Sky Sports’ Davison’s brush with Emery came just minutes after a spiky interview with beleaguered United boss Michael Carrick.
When the future of his own position was put to him by Davison, Carrick took exception to the question.
‘What do you expect to happen over the next few weeks? You’ve been asked time and again about your future? I know you have said that you walking away was the best for the club, you’d probably do it,’ Davison asked Carrick.
‘It’s not going to happen, no,’ Carrick replied.
With United chiefs Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox in the stands, Davison pushed further asking: ‘What do you expect to happen? Clearly there’s going to be conversation?’
This prompted Carrick to quizzically state: ‘Is there?’ as the pair engaged in a back-and-forth on the subject.
Eventually Carrick replied: ‘You know the situation, we haven’t won enough games. But I expect to move forward with things we’ve been working on, showing a lot of the good from today tighten up a few mistakes and win some football matches.’
United’s start of one win in 10 games is still their worst since Alex Ferguson replaced Ron Atkinson 40 years ago this week. They conceded twice at the start of each half against Villa, and have now let in 30 goals in all competitions – the joint highest in Europe’s top five leagues.
