Ezri Konsa believes it was "fair" of Unai Emery to call Aston Villa "lazy" following their disappointing 1-1 draw with Sunderland.

Villa played against 10 men for over an hour at the Stadium of Light, and though they scored their first goal of the Premier League season through Matty Cash, they were pegged back by Wilson Isidor.

With Villa still searching for the first win of the season, Emery was furious after the match, saying: "We were lazy sometimes in defence. When we conceded, we were lazy".

And Konsa says he thinks the Spaniard was right to call out his players.

"Yeah, it's a fair comment. I think everyone has seen the picture, seen the goal," said Konsa in a press conference ahead of Villa's Europa League opener against Bologna.

"Here we pride ourselves in trying to play a high line; it is something the boss has instilled since he first came.

"We didn't quite get it right. Things have not been good for us so far this season. But there are blips in the season, and we are going through that now. Hopefully, we can move on.

"When your manager doesn't speak too well of you, it is not a good thing for you. It does bring a bit of fuel into you, and you just want to play the next game as soon as possible, to prove everyone wrong. It starts from [Thursday].

"As players, we have been in the game a long time, and we know what we need to do. It is down to us at the end of the day. We are on the pitch, not the manager. We have to figure it out for ourselves as well."

This will be the second consecutive season to see Villa face Bologna in European competition – the Villans won 2-0 in last season's Champions League.

It has been a stuttering start to this campaign so far, though, with Villa sitting 18th in the Premier League and having already been knocked out of the EFL Cup.

Despite that, Konsa insists the club are not in a "crisis".

"I don't think we are at the stage where we need to have meetings," he added. "People will talk about crisis meetings and things like that, but we have got a great captain in John McGinn, who really takes the lead in stuff like that.

"After the game, he said a few words to keep us going, to keep encouraging us. Look, we haven't started the season well. We know that. But I'm sure it's going to go well soon.

"It shows how far we have come over the last three years [that people have criticised Villa's start to the season]".

But Villa will be hoping to change their fortunes in the Europa League, as they are led by the most successful manager in its history.

Emery holds the record for the most games managed (93), most wins (56) and most titles (four) in the Europa League. He has also reached the final in each of the last five full campaigns in the competition.