Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has brutally laid into Aston Villa after their “disgrace” of a performance against Tottenham Hotspur.
Aston Villa are coming off a disappointing week, in which they lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final and were beaten 2-1 by Tottenham Hotspur.
With the return leg at Villa Park coming up on Thursday and Champions League qualification virtually already secured, head coach Unai Emery named a very weakened team to face Spurs and were deservedly beaten.
Speaking after his side’s loss, Emery attempted to defend his team selection.
“I have been here for three and a half years now and I don’t forget how we have done everything,” Emery told reporters.
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“Some of these players were winning several matches in a row earlier in the season.
“Now we have 58 points after 35 games of the season. I am so proud of the players. I am not linking the changes in the team to the results.
“We also lost at Nottingham Forest and at Fulham last weekend. When we beat Sunderland here I also made changes, but because we won, nobody said anything.
“We lost here because Tottenham played better than us. We must be realistic about everything. I don’t change my mind or my point of view.”
“It made Spurs look like PSG…”
However, Jordan has now hit out at Aston Villa, Emery and their players after one of the worst performances he has “ever seen”.
“Tottenham were good, better. But the more Tottenham got into that game, the more they realised that Aston Villa were going to do absolutely bugger all, let alone lift a leg,” Jordan said on talkSPORT.
“Tottenham got bolder and bolder and looked better. No one’s taking it away from Spurs. I’m glad they got a result.
“The fact is that Aston Villa put top players in there, not mugs. If you’re an Aston Villa fan, go and watch that game, having paid a lot of money for it, despite the fact you’ve got a big game coming in the week, and we know that you just played, and you’re going to be a bit leggy. That’s why you made the changes.
“But even the manager, he looked completely nonplussed, disengaged, completely out of sorts.
“I don’t think you should be questioning integrity. I think you should be calling it what it was, an absolute disgrace of a performance.
“Spurs must have been rubbing their hands, thinking we are never, ever going to get a better opportunity to play such a slovenly, disengaged, unmotivated, chaotic, poor side as Aston Villa.”
He added: “That is as bad a Premier League performance as I think I have ever seen, even watching Derby and watching Wolves. They were so disconnected, so disengaged, so disinterested, so under-aroused that it made Spurs look like PSG.”
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Jordan even went as far as to suggest Aston Villa’s players “cheated the paying public out of a performance”.
He added: “Look at the players that were in that team. Look at the noise and the experience around. We had to listen to Tyrone Mings over the years about what he thinks he’s entitled to. That performance in that side was abject.
“Tielemans was abject, Ross Barkley was a mile off. Tammy Abraham didn’t lift a leg. They were shocking.
“I’m not just saying it because I’ve got any dog in the fight or axe to grind.
“I sat there watching, they’re just cheats. They cheated the paying public out of a performance.”