Old Trafford thriller: Emery explains tunnel exit after United's late leveller

Manchester United snatched a point against Aston Villa with a late equaliser in an eight-goal thriller at Old Trafford, a finish dramatic enough that Unai Emery left the technical area for the tunnel before the final whistle had actually been blown.

Emery later explained the moment, saying, as reported by Sky Sports Football, that he had headed down the tunnel because he believed the match was about to end when United struck their leveller.

The draw arrived in a fixture Villa had approached with history weighing against them. Emery had noted before kick-off that his side had not won at Old Trafford for four years, telling Yahoo Sports: "We did not win one match there in four years."

Villa had also lost each of their previous six matches there in all competitions, while chasing a fifth straight unbeaten result against United, who had won only one of their opening nine league fixtures this season, that victory coming against Ipswich in August.

Despite United's inconsistent league form under Michael Carrick, Emery refused to treat them as an easy assignment, placing them on a par with Barcelona, who had beaten his Villa side 3-0 in the Champions League three days earlier. "This year they are playing well in the Champions League. They have not been consistent in the league, but they should recover it, but hopefully not against us," he said. "We lost to Barcelona because of the level we faced; this is the highest level in the Champions League. Man United is at the same level as Barcelona."

The match followed a week in which Emery's own future had dominated discussion at Villa Park. He confirmed talks over a new contract with chairman Nassef Sawiris, describing their meeting as "very positive" and saying further discussions were planned for the following week.

Emery framed the negotiations around Villa's broader trajectory rather than any immediate decision. "My ambition is to keep our consistency and how we are improving and building lots of things positively. It is a huge challenge. They decided, speaking with us last year, to build a new stand to add more supporters at Villa Park. That is a clear step forward to get better," he said.

He went on to link the club's recruitment strategy to that ambition: "How we are increasing our budget each year, and revenue through our performance by playing in Europe and improving players, selling players, then buying young talented players, this is the process and ambition we should keep in the future... We were speaking about how we can set our project stronger with a deal, yes."

Writing for Guardian Sport, Jonathan Wilson noted that Emery was already in what he described as "advanced talks" to extend a contract that runs to 2029, arguing there were few reasons for the Spaniard to leave Villa for a United side he is well suited to managing through its current upheaval.

For Villa, the outcome at Old Trafford ended their losing run there while extending their unbeaten sequence against United, even if a share of the spoils followed a demanding week that began with defeat in Barcelona and finished with Emery heading for the tunnel a little earlier than he intended.