Man United downed by Aston Villa in Unai Emery's first match in charge

Updated: May 16, 2023, 11:53 pm

Manchester United suffered a damaging 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa at a lively Villa Park as Unai Emery's side gave their new manager the best welcome possible.

Cristiano Ronaldo captained United but the Portugal forward could only watch on as Villa took a quick-fire lead through Leon Bailey and Lucas Digne in the first 11 minutes.

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A Jacob Ramsey own goal reduced the deficit for Erik ten Hag's team but he redeemed himself with a fine finish in the 49th minute to give Emery victory in his first match in charge since his appointment last month.

"We were hopeful at half-time that we could come back, but we gave the game away early in the second half," Ten Hag said.

"I am a long time in football. People are not robots. It is not acceptable, we have to be ready for every game and not give the game away. Collectively it was a bad performance."

Aston Villa beat Manchester United at home for the first time since 1995.
Barrington Coombs/PA Images via Getty Images

It was also Villa's first home league win against United in their last 24 attempts, a run stretching back to 1995 -- the longest undefeated away run a team has had against another in English league history

Villa had the perfect start in the seventh minute when Bailey burst through and fired past David de Gea after being played in by Ramsey.

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Things went from bad to worse for United when Digne doubled Villa's lead just four minutes later with a fine left-footed free-kick.

But United were given hope just before half-time when Ramsey deflected Luke Shaw's shot from distance past Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez.

Ramsey made up for that four minutes after the break when he side-footed past De Gea after running on to a ball from Ollie Watkins.

"We have the players with the good skills," Emery said. "The way we played the 90 minutes we can be optimistic but [it is] only [the] first step and we have to work a lot to keep improving."

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.