Unai Emery admits Aston Villa 'lost our minds' in 4-3 Sunderland victory

The striker came off the bench in the 80th minute, replacing Ollie Watkins, who had scored twice in the first half.

Morgan Rogers made it 3–1 early in the second half, but after Jadon Sancho twice gave the ball away, Sunderland scored in the 86th and 87th minutes.

The drama wasn’t finished there, as Emi Martínez then denied Habib Diarra in a one-on-one, before Abraham turned in Lucas Digne’s cross from the left.

"I am so, so happy. We played a fantastic match and maybe the two goals we conceded in one minute, we lost our mind a little bit,” Emery said on Sky Sports.

“They were excited. But how we reacted at 3-3 to score the fourth goal was fantastic. The Premier League is very difficult and to beat Sunderland, they had the opportunity today and still are in the run for Europe.

“We started this match with many objectives, one of them was to keep fourth, get an advantage on other teams and leave Sunderland further behind us. We did it.

“I am so happy with how we played. I am going to analyse deeply why we lost our minds in a few minutes.

"First half, we started intense and dominated. Of course we conceded very quickly but we recovered our positioning and we played our game plan. The second half was better, we had chances to score the fourth. Very positive today. I am analysing how we are building tactically and how we want to play."

Speaking of Martinez’s crucial save, Emery said: "We need strikers and goalkeepers. It was the match - three points for them and no three points for us."

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.

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