4 months ago
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Harvey Elliott has vowed to 'put it right' following a challenging start to his tenure at Aston Villa, having been called out by Unai Emery. The 22-year-old made the switch to Villa Park on deadline day, initially on loan until the end of the season, with an obligation for Villa to make the move permanent next summer.
Since joining Villa, Elliott has made three appearances. He debuted as a substitute against Everton earlier this month and netted his first goal for the club in the Carabao Cup penalty shootout defeat to Brentford last week.
This weekend saw him back on the bench as Villa faced Sunderland away. Elliott entered the fray with 32 minutes left on the clock, at a point when the match was still goalless, despite Sunderland being down to 10 men since the first half.
Interestingly, Elliott's Carabao Cup goal last week was Villa's only goal of the season until Matty Cash broke the deadlock in the second half against Sunderland.
However, even with a man advantage, Villa couldn't maintain their lead, with Sunderland equalising eight minutes later through Wilson Isidor. The scoreline remained unchanged.
This result means that Villa are still seeking their first win of the season, having garnered just three points from their opening five matches. They have also managed to score just one Premier League goal.
This leaves them languishing in 18th place in the table, level on points with West Ham United who occupy 19th position. It's a predicament that Elliott and his colleagues will be desperate to remedy swiftly.
Posting on Instagram following the match, the Liverpool loanee penned: "We will keep fighting for you Villans and put it right! Thanks for your incredible support." He accompanied this with a red heart emoji.
Elliott's former Liverpool colleagues demonstrated their backing with Curtis Jones, Jeremie Frimpong, Rio Ngumoha, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo amongst those to 'like' the post. Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez also showed their support by liking the message.
After the match, Aston Villa manager Unai Emery delivered a damning verdict on his squad's display. "We are not playing like we want, we are missing our identity," he declared.
"We were not dominating or controlling the ball, even with an extra man. We have to work on our identity, I'm not disappointed or angry with the result, I am angry with how we are playing.
"We need to show our personality to be able to play. We were lazy sometimes. We are not playing our style. We have the experience of the last three years when we were feeling confident ... when I say lazy, I mean when you play away from home, you have to fight in every duel and we were not always doing that.
"They do not look like my team, we do not look comfortable playing. I am confident we will fix it, we will feel more comfortable. Collectively we have to try and understand that."
Villa and Elliott are set to take the pitch again on Thursday night, kicking off their Europa League journey with a home match against Bologna. They then switch gears back to Premier League action on Sunday, hosting Fulham.
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