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Unai Emery defends Aston Villa plan after Carabao Cup exit to Crystal Palace

Unai Emery's Aston Villa lost to Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup
-Credit: (Image: Getty Images)


Aston Villa manager Unai Emery insists he has no regrets over his team selection after being beaten 2-1 by Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup.

Villa fell behind in the eighth minute when Eberechi Eze headed past Joe Gauci, before Jhon Duran levelled the game up 15 minutes later. Palace forward Daichi Kamada then punished Villa after Diego Carlos gave the ball away trying to play out from the back as the Japan international fired past Joe Gauci to put the visitors back in front with 30 minutes left to play.

Emery made 10 changes to his starting XI and did not include the likes of Ollie Watkins, Ross Barkley, Emi Martinez, Pau Torres, Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana, Lucas Digne or Ezri Konsa in the matchday squad. Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara both impressed on what was their first starts since suffering respective ACL injuries, but Emery was quizzed about his selection in his post-match press conference.

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"We started with 11 players in the squad in the first team," Emery said. "We started with Tyrone Mings, Diego Carlos, they can play normally in the starting XI playing against [teams like] Bayern Munich.

"We started with Maatsen and Kosta, we signed them to be in the squad to play in matches like that. We started with McGinn, Kamara, Bailey, Jaden, Jhon Duran and Emi Buendia."

He continued: "Today was the match to start playing with Tyrone Mings and to start playing with Kamara. We played one week ago against Bologna in the Champions League. Last year as well we focused the season trying to be intelligent and trying to be strong.

"This year is the same. We are with our way, building the team and our structure. The structure is for all the season. Today we competed, but we lost. We competed with the idea that the players would get their performance. I am disappointed and frustrated, but if I repeated this match 100 times, I would play the same players."

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