Aston Villa boss Unai Emery said Zion Suzuki’s howler in the 1-1 draw with Fulham is “part of football”.

The Villa goalkeeper spilled a corner behind the line for a hapless own goal midway through the second half to gift the Cottagers a point at Villa Park after Nicolas Jackson’s fifth goal in five games had put the hosts in front.

Suzuki had made a wonder save in the first half to deny Fulham an opener and Emery preferred to focus on that.

“It’s part of football. Of course, we can identify, and we are responsible and mature to understand,” he said.

“We are making mistakes when we are playing. Myself as a coach, I am making every day mistakes.

“The players, they are making mistakes every match, but maybe one mistake in the middle of the field is not so relevant.

“But one mistake when it’s a striker to score, or when it is the keeper when he has to save one action clear defensively, those mistakes are are more in the focus.

“But it is part of football. I prefer to speak about the save he did.”

Villa, who missed an early penalty when John McGinn struck the crossbar, were unable to build on last week’s impressive win over Manchester City despite Jackson’s opener, as their inconsistent start to the season continued.

“I think the result is fair result,” Emery added. “I think we could win in the last 10 minutes because we created two good chances to score.

“But I think overall in 90 minutes this result is fair. We are improving, but it’s not enough.

“We are understanding the team better, the players in our structure. We are adapting, but still work to do.”

Fulham boss Alvaro Arbeloa said his side’s second-half performance was “the team we want to be”.

The Cottagers eased pressure on their under-fire boss with the draw to back up last week’s win over Coventry.

There were a constant threat in the second half and had chances to win the game.

“This is the Premier League, if you want to win a game, you need to fight for every ball,” Arbeloa said. “And I think that we have to believe in our way, but we need to be fighters.

“And since the first minute of the second half, we saw that we can beat anyone, that we can beat anyone in the way that we play.

“But you have to to be aggressive. And of course, we defended much better. We were more aggressive. We fought for every ball and I think we created so many chances.

“We could score some good goals. We did it. We didn’t. So at the end, it’s one point in a difficult stadium.

“But for me, right now, that we are just starting, I am so happy with the second half because of the performance of my players, because the way that they play, and because this is the team that we want to be.”