It was always going to be difficult to follow up the glory of booking a Europa League final place for Aston Villa but a tired draw at Burnley fell below expectations. This was supposed to be the day Villa all-but-secured Champions League football by beating an already-relegated team but instead were held on an entertaining afternoon at Turf Moor .
Villa are four points clear of sixth-placed Bournemouth with Liverpool and Manchester City to come, making this a missed opportunity, even if they do have the backup of facing Freiburg for a place at Europe’s top table. Jaidon Anthony and Zian Flemming sandwiched goals from Ross Barkley and Ollie Watkins, ensuring Villa cannot afford to completely rest for the remainder of the domestic season.
“Very very happy with the performance and result,” Unai Emery said. “It’s been difficult to be fifth in the league on matchday 36. Very, very difficult. It’s fantastic to be where we are. And now our objective is to be top five, and to be top five in the Premier League, the Premier League for us is something fantastic. And today the point is not enough, I know it’s not enough but I know the difficulty to achieve three points here.”
The Villa weariness was understandable, as Emery made only three changes, knowing the importance of a victory in Lancashire but they started very slowly. Emiliano Martínez spent Thursday night after the thrashing of Nottingham Forest swinging on the crossbar to celebrate reaching the Europa League final but he was left sullen under it at Turf Moor when he palmed Lesley Ugochukwu’s tame shot straight to Anthony to fire home. It was the first time Burnley had led at home in four months and the crowd were unsure how to celebrate.
