Aston Villa thumped 5-0 by Crystal Palace - but Unai Emery won't care! - video Dailymotion

Birmingham World reporter Charlie Haffenden reacts to Aston Villa's 5-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on the Premier League final day.

Transcript

00:00 Aston Villa's 2023/24 season has come to an embarrassing end, quite frankly, but I don't think they'll care

00:07 losing 5-0 away at Crystal Palace, Selhurst Park on the final day of the Premier League.

00:12 It's not exactly the best result, is it? The way that Palace played, they could easily have won 7 or 8-0.

00:18 The first half, there wasn't too much between the two teams.

00:21 Palace, I think the better, Jean-Philippe Mettet are getting on the score sheet to give them the lead.

00:25 But in the second half, well, they just ran riot. Villa looked completely uninterested.

00:30 Lots of Diego Carlos, Douglas Luiz, Callum Chambers who came in for a start in quite a rotated line-up.

00:36 They just didn't show any kind of desire whatsoever to keep the score down.

00:40 And they paid the price, Villa, because Palace, they just looked incredible on the ball.

00:44 The way that Oliver Glas' men were playing one-twos like it was nothing.

00:48 Eze driving through the space, Alisse as well, with creating opportunities and his dribbling was very impressive.

00:54 And Mettet, the hat-trick scorer on the day, Eze scoring two from outside the area.

00:58 It just wasn't good enough at all from Villa.

01:00 But as I say, they're not going to care because they've already secured a top-four finish.

01:04 They've already got their Champions League football qualification booked for next season.

01:08 So today was just a run-out for a few fringe players and quite a few new players on the bench as well.

01:13 Coming on towards the end, also a place on the bench for Unai Emery's son, Landa Emery, a goalkeeper.

01:21 Sat on the bench this afternoon, his first ever first-team call-up for any kind of match day.

01:25 So a good experience for him.

01:27 I did ask Emery in the post-match press conference what it was like to have his son there, but he gave a bit of a boring answer.

01:32 He just said he was another player, which I'll be a bit of a rude thing to say about your son.

01:36 But nonetheless, Landa getting in the matchday squad will be a good experience for him.

01:41 We don't expect to see Landa Emery in the squad too often, probably not even in the Cups next season, to be honest.

01:46 Because you've got Joe Gauchi, you've got Robin Olsen and of course Emiliano Martinez, the world's number one.

01:53 Martinez missed out today through a small injury, Emery says.

01:57 And Leon Bailey, who's been so impressive this season, couldn't travel because of illness.

02:02 But to be honest, those two players, probably unexpected to play anyway.

02:05 A little bit like Pau Torres, he sat out the entire fixture on the bench.

02:09 It just wasn't needed to risk them.

02:11 I just don't think Emery anticipated the fact that Palace would win 5-0.

02:16 It could have been 6, could have been 7 if it wasn't for Alisse and Eze being offside.

02:21 There was one for Mateta as well, he put the ball in the back of the net for a fourth goal.

02:25 That was flagged offside.

02:27 The Villa offside trap at least worked a little bit today.

02:30 But that's one of the very few positives because it was just made so, so easy for Crystal Palace to run through time and time again.

02:37 The good thing of course is the fact it's the end of the season now, it doesn't really matter the grand scheme of things.

02:42 I just think Emery and his men won't really want to look back at this incredible season and see their final result being a 5-0.

02:49 Of course you wouldn't.

02:50 It doesn't matter too much at all.

02:52 Villa now go on to have a long rest, as Emery said in the press conference.

02:56 And they can go and enjoy the summer ahead of next season.

02:59 Champions League football is on its way to Villa Park.