Unai Emery responds after ‘absolutely mental’ shove of Aston Villa star during match

Unai Emery bizarrely shoved Youri Tielemans after substituting him in the final stages of Aston Villa’s Europa League win on Thursday.

The Villa manager appeared to completely lose his cool at his own player during his side’s 1-0 victory over Fenerbahce.

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Tielemans was taken off in the second minute of stoppage-time, as he was replaced by youngster George Hemmings.

As the Belgian left the pitch though, he came face-to-face with a fuming Emery, who took his anger out on him instantly.

The Spaniard refused to shake his midfielder’s hand and instead screamed at him and pushed him away with some force.

Tielemans appeared to also say something back to his boss, while the fuming Emery then turned back to face the pitch.

The shocking moment left fans in disbelief as they watched on, with plenty commenting on the incident on social media.

One supporter wrote on X: “Unai Emery has gone absolutely mental at Tielemans.”

Another commented: “Not sure what Emery was doing with Tielemans, not a great look.”

“What did Tielemans do wrong?” a third asked on X.

A fourth strongly stated: “Idk man emery was out of line here, do role reversal and the player would never play for the club again.”

Meanwhile, a fifth fan wrote: “It was something over nothing. Emery is emotional. Tielemans was laughing at full time.”

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Emery responds

Emery was asked about the incident between him and Tielemans and the Villans boss played things down as he said in his post-match press conference: “He’s like my son.”

There had been speculation that Emery was left raging by Tielemans jogging too quickly off the pitch when he was substituted.

Another theory was that the Belgian international being booked just moments before had seen his manager lose his cool.

Emery has not given any new insight into why he was angry.

However, it has been reported that the Villa pair hugged in the dressing room, quickly making up post-match.

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Villa in line to progress

Despite the headline-grabbing incident between Tielemans and Emery, Aston Villa will be pleased with their win.

They are now all but qualified for the knockout stage of the Europa League with their win over Fenerbahce on Thursday.

Jadon Sancho‘s goal after 25 minutes was enough to get the job done, with both teams having goals disallowed in the second half.

Villa sit second in the league phase table after seven games, leaving them on the brink with one match left.

Emery’s men are at home to RB Salzburg next up on January 29.