Unai Emery urged Aston Villa to "keep fighting" following their 3-1 defeat by Manchester United on Sunday.

Villa's Champions League qualifying hopes suffered another blow after they lost a third straight Premier League game for the first time since February 2023.

Ross Barkley cancelled out Casemiro's header, but further strikes from Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko sealed victory for United, who moved three points clear of Emery's side.

The Spaniard was disappointed his side could not build on the momentum of their hard-earned 1-0 win over Lille in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie on Thursday.

However, he demanded a positive response from his players.

"Bad result. We played 90 minutes trying to continue our mentality and the good form we had in Lille, but today was a huge challenge," he said.

"The first half was equal. In the second half, we started poorly, they dominated more, and we needed to react and try to get control of the game."

"When you can keep the ball and try to stop them with the ball, it's like we want. In 90 minutes, a lot of things happened; some we did fantastically, and some we missed momentum.

"Overall, we needed to play smart with our idea. We're going to analyse in detail how we conceded more than we planned.  

"There are still matches to play, points to play [for]. We're still in a top position. But we must get better at some things and keep fighting. 

"We must be positive. Recover energy. We must use the points we had before to try to keep going, keep fighting and keep recovering tactically and with confidence."