Rogers concedes Villa 'made it too easy' for Palace

Villa missed the chance to close the gap on the Premier League's top four, as they suffered their seventh loss in nine away league games.

Rogers' well-taken strike pulled Unai Emery's side level after they fell behind to Ismaila Sarr's opener.

However, it proved a consolation with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Eddie Nketiah sandwiching Sarr's second, as the Eagles made it back-to-back wins.

And Rogers conceded he and his team-mates did not "stamp our authority on the game".

"I thought in the first half, we did pretty well, they scored against the run of play," he told TNT Sports. "We did well to get back into the game.

"We probably didn't stamp our authority on the game, we probably made it too easy for them to get through us. They deserved the win. We were not good enough and, yes, it's one of those games.

"We just weren't good enough today. We need to look at ourselves and go again. We have games coming thick and fast in other competitions."

Emery concurred, with the Villa boss also confirming Emiliano Martinez, who was substituted at half-time, was carrying a knock prior to the game.

"We were competing well until the first goal we conceded," he added. "We were dominating the match. The first chance they had, they scored, then they got some transitioning.

"In the second half, we tried to come back, but then we scored, and we were excited and motivated to try to continue controlling the game with our positioning.

"They scored the second goal, and we lost our positioning, we conceded transitions, and they scored two more goals. It was a tough result. We competed well, but it was not enough - we move on.

"[Martinez] was feeling some pain. Even yesterday, he trained well, but before the match, he felt better and felt confident to play. At half-time, he told us he was not feeling good, so we decided to change him."

THREE POINTS AGAIN, THREE POINTS AGAIN, THREE POINTS AGAIN, OLE OLE.#CPFC // #CRYAVL pic.twitter.com/CjxTBUIVih

— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) February 25, 2025

Palace have won six of their last seven home Premier League games against Villa (L1), scoring 2.7 goals on average per fixture during that spell.

In fact, each of the last two times that the Eagles have scored four or more goals in a league match have come at Selhurst Park vs Aston Villa (also 5-0 in May 2024).

Palace boss Oliver Glasner saluted his players for the way in which they executed their game plan.

"Everybody is happy; everybody is pleased with the win," he told BBC Match of the Day. "Congrats to the players for this great performance.

"Momentum of the game can change when you face a team with the quality of Villa. We didn't allow the momentum to change, and we kept going. We were very aggressive and waited for our chances. We scored fantastic goals, all the credit to the players.

"To be honest, we didn't speak about winning this game. They matched us, but the players know what they have to do, and they did it with fantastic intensity.

"We talked about what we want to do, and what we need to do. The result is the consequence of a great performance."

Mateta toasted a "perfect night" while Adam Wharton, who played a part in three of the goals in his first start in over three months, also highlighted the importance of Palace's tactical awareness.

"Great win," Wharton told TNT Sports. "The fans were unbelievable. We had to be patient - Villa are a top side.