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Unai Emery defends his team selection after Aston Villa’s cup exit
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Unai Emery defends his team selection after Aston Villa’s cup exit

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has no regrets about his team selection after watching his much-changed side crash out of the Carabao Cup against Crystal Palace.

Emery made sweeping changes to his line-up, with Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Martinez, Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers, Amadou Onana and Ross Barkley not even making the matchday squad.

And it was bittersweet again as Palace secured their place in the last eight with a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Eberechi Eze and Daichi Kamada either side of Jhon Duran’s equaliser.

Emery insisted he would choose the same team if he played the game 100 times again.

“We started with 11 players in the first-team squad,” he said. “We started with Tyrone Mings and Diego Carlos, they can play in the starting eleven against Bayern Munich.

“We started with (Ian) Maatsen and Kosta (Nedeljkovic). We started with (Boubacar) Kamara, with John McGinn, Leon Bailey, Jaden Philogene, Jhon Duran, (Emiliano) Buendia, I don’t know if I can regret it.

“We are on our way, building the team, building the structure. Today we competed but we lost.

“Of course I’m disappointed and frustrated, but we competed with the players to deliver the performance.

“If I repeat this game 100 times, I will play with the same players.”

The win was another step in the right direction after they beat Tottenham in the Premier League at the weekend.

However, this came at a price as Eze hobbled with a hamstring injury and was soon followed by Adam Wharton.

Boss Oliver Glasner says Eze’s problem is a cause for concern ahead of a crucial game at Wolves on Saturday.

“It’s a problem with the thigh muscles, we don’t know how serious it is,” said the German.

“But the muscle (injury) is not always the best information you can get. Ebs is still too early to tell.

“He wanted to get out, he gave a signal to get out. He said it was not possible to continue.

“I hope it’s not too serious, but I don’t know. It’s not the best information I got today that Ebs had to leave the field.

“Adam is more positive because it’s nothing new. We’ve talked about it often, he’s had groin problems for many months.

“We thought he needed a break today but he gave the thumbs up and said he was fine.

“But the pain got worse as the game went on so we had to make a second substitution.

“I am very proud of the achievement, especially under these circumstances.”

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