Micky van de Ven felt ‘it wasn’t necessary to lose today’ after we were undone by two wonder strikes as Villa took the points via a 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.
Key moments in the game went against us after a perfect start, Rodrigo Bentancur firing us into the lead on five minutes. It would have been 2-0 minutes later, but Mo Kudus strayed offside before a brilliant finish from Micky’s pass.
It was a tough one to take for Micky, who wore the captain’s armband after Cuti Romero’s withdrawal in the warm up.
Speaking to us on the Review Show, Micky reflected: “It was a tough game, really tough. Aston Villa are a good side. We knew from the beginning it was going to be a tight game, but I don’t think they created big opportunities. They scored two goals outside of the box. I have to see it back if I can say there is something we could have done about it, but I think it was not necessary to lose today.
“We scored early and you want to build on that. We created opportunities but the longer the game goes on, you also need control. You can’t keep pushing forward the whole game. In the end, they scored out of nowhere. First goal, great strike, we can't really do something about it. Second goal, I don't know exactly from where he shoots, but I think it's quite far, so out of the box into the long corner.
“We also had some great opportunities, but we didn't play the best pass, so I think sometimes in the final third we need to be calmer and just play the best pass to make the biggest opportunity out of it. I don't think we did that today.”