Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has shed light on why he did not exchange handshakes with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta after his side’s 4-1 Premier League defeat.
Emery’s side were well beaten in an entertaining match at the Emirates Stadium with goals from Gabriel Magalhaes, Martin Zubimendi, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus settling the match.
Ollie Watkins did get a late consolation for Aston Villa but Emery was clearly unhappy to have lost so heavily against their title rivals.
Premier League leaders Arsenal moved five points clear of second-placed Manchester City – who face Sunderland on New Year’s Day in their game in hand – while Aston Villa are now six points adrift of the Gunners.
After the final whistle, Arsenal boss Arteta embraced his backroom staff before heading over to the Aston Villa bench to shake Emery’s hand.
However, Emery had already disappeared down the tunnel with the Aston Villa head coach explaining why he didn’t shake Arteta’s hand.
Emery said: “After finishing the match my routine is always quick, shake hands… I was waiting. Of course (Arteta) was happy. But he was with the coaches and I can’t wait for him.
“I was there but no problem. I went to my dressing room.”
Arteta was also asked about Emery not waiting for him, to which the Arsenal head coach replied: “It’s not an issue. Sometimes we are in this sort of moment, so it’s not an issue for me.”
Reacting to the result, Arteta told a post-match press conference: “I’m so happy. We play every three days, we played an opponent today that comes from 11 wins in a row, a superb team, very difficult to play against and we knew that we were going to have periods throughout the game.
“We talked about how demanding it was going to be emotionally and we struggled in the first 10 minutes, arriving a bit late. They were playing through us and creating some open space situations that they are very dangerous at.
“Then we adjusted, got a bit more control, two big chances by Viktor and one scrappy situation inside the box, but we didn’t manage to score. In the second half, we clicked.
“Everything went much better, timings were better and the individual duels were fulfilled in an extraordinary way, so efficient in everything that we did. Unlike the last few games where we had so many big situations, today we were very prolific and accurate to make the difference.”
