(Reuters) – Both Aston Villa manager Unai Emery and Brentford counterpart Thomas Frank expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of their players during a chaotic Premier League match on Sunday.
Villa fought back to claim a 2-1 victory at Brentford’s Community Stadium, with Ollie Watkins scoring an 85th-minute winner against his former club and provoking a goalmouth scuffle with his celebrations.
Brentford’s Ben Mee was sent off in the 71st minute for a foul on substitute Leon Bailey, while Villa’s Boubacar Kamara received a red card for violent conduct in added time.
A further incident occurred when Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez tried to pull Brentford striker Neal Maupay to his feet.
The referee issued 10 yellow cards to other players, as well as to both managers – Frank for protesting Mee’s red card and Emery for stepping onto the pitch to restrain Martinez.
All 14 cards were given in the second half.
“I want to collectively and individually analyze with the players, but it is my philosophy when we are playing and winning to try to respect everything,” Emery told Sky Sports.
“On the pitch, the players are excited, both teams had some nervous moments, and things like what we saw can happen.
“My message before the matches is always the same – respect ourselves, respect the opponent, respect the referees. We lost a little bit of our minds today in some of those behaviors, I want to focus and react to control it.”
Frank was also disappointed with his team’s behavior and noted that there were too many instances where he thought, ‘No, that’s not how it should be”.
“It should be the beautiful game in a physical contest between two teams and there should be a winner, but unfortunately there were situations that will take the headlines,” he added.
Villa is currently in third place, just one point behind leaders Arsenal, while Brentford is in 12th place, having lost five of their last six league games.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
