Emiliano Martinez admits he finds it ‘really hard to take’ Aston Villa losing at home again and has hit out at Steven Gerrard’s side for conceding early goals, via the Express & Star.
The Villans suffered their seventh defeat over 15 Premier League games at Villa Park so far this season on Saturday as Tottenham won 4-0 in Birmingham. Heung-Min Son also put the north London outfit ahead inside the third minute, before Spurs ran riot in the second-half.
Only Watford (12), Norwich City (10) and Brentford (8) have lost more games at home this term than Villa (7). Additionally, only the Hornets (9) and Canaries (6) have lost more often at home than the Villans (5) since Gerrard replaced Dean Smith at the helm in November.
Conceding early goals has also proven problematic for the claret-and-blue side over recent weeks. Son’s third-minute goal followed Jonny Castro Otto putting Wolves ahead after just seven minutes at Molineux a week before, as Aston Villa lost the west Midlands derby 2-1.
Emi Martinez admits it’s ‘really hard to take’ Aston Villa losing at home again
Martinez started against both Wolves and Tottenham, as the £17m Aston Villa goalkeeper reached 30 Premier League starts this season. But shipping twice at Molineux and four to Spurs took him to 43 goals conceded this term over 21 outings – he has nine clean sheets.
A third of his shut outs came in February and March as the Villans enjoyed a three-game winning run. But Gerrard has not overseen a single point in the four to follow, and losing so many at Villa Park is now frustrating the Birmingham outfit’s Argentinean shot-stopper.
“It is really hard to take, not just the defeat but the fact we lost again at home,” Martinez said. “We conceded again so early in the game, which is something we need to adjust. We are conceding goals in the first 10 minutes in every single game.”
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