Aston Villa 2-2 Crystal Palace: Villa hit back twice to end losing run

It was a mixed afternoon for Aston Villa boss Emery, who took positives and negatives from the performance.

Villa showed great character to twice come from behind, while in the second half their attacking play looked much more like what fans saw last season.

Were it not for the superb performances of Palace goalkeeper Henderson and Lacroix, Villa would surely have scored a third.

The importance of ending the losing streak cannot be overstated, while the same can be said of Watkins scoring after drawing five blanks in the league.

However, Villa are still nowhere near the level they were at last season.

The ease with which Palace broke through Villa’s high defensive line through transitions was alarming, especially given the visitors were missing key attacker Eberechi Eze.

“Yes, it is,” Emery said when asked if Villa’s vulnerability on transitions was concerning him.

“We are working on it. The players are concerned as well.

“We deserved more but we made some mistakes that we need to correct. We had chances to score, we came back.

“A point is not bad, but the issue is we are trying to be in the top seven positions and we need to improve to be there.”

Emery avoided losing five consecutive matches for the first time in his career, but there is plenty of room for improvement.