By Betsefy
Head coach Steven Gerrard has acknowledged that he has concerns about his long-term future at Aston Villa.
Gerrard went into Wednesday evening’s fixture with Arsenal having witnessed his team collect just three points from a possible 12 in the Premier League.
Villa’s previous defeats had been against Crystal Palace and West Ham United, heaping the pressure on Gerrard and his players ahead of the trip to the Emirates Stadium.
The West Midlands outfit went down by a 2-1 scoreline in North London with Douglas Luiz‘s second-half equaliser direct from a corner being wiped out by Gabriel Martinelli‘s pivotal strike three minutes later.
With Villa now sitting down in 19th position in the standings ahead of welcoming Manchester City at the weekend, the Englishman says that he is aware of the ramifications of further setbacks.
When quizzed on the matter, Gerrard told BT Sport: “Of course I do. I am really honest and critical of myself. If I stood here and said I wasn’t concerned I think you’d look at me as though I was from a different planet.”
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Reflecting on the contest as a whole, Gerrard was satisfied with his team’s fighting spirit, although he agreed that Villa’s defending had been below par.
Although goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made six saves on the night, the Argentine was at fault for Arsenal’s winner in the closing stages.
Gerrard added: “We worked ever so hard to stay in the game and stay with Arsenal. I think technically they were a level above for 45 minutes. Because of our technical level we kept giving the ball back.
“We improved a lot second half and had some really interesting breakaways. Douglas provides a bit of magic to get us back in the game. Again we concede two goals because we didn’t get the detail of our defending right.
“Of course the keeper could have done a bit better for us for the second one but he kept us in the game for large parts of it as well. At the moment we a struggling to keep clean sheets and we need to get back to basics.”
Ahead of the final day of the transfer window on Thursday, Gerrard has already revealed that he hopes to sign “one or two” fresh faces.
