Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez praised the defensive resilience of Manchester United on Sunday.

Martinez was gracious in defeat to the Red Devils, as his side were downed 1-0 thanks to a Bruno Fernandes strike.

The Argentine, who was beaten as the shot took a slight deflection, said that his team could have earned a point, but for excellent United defending.

"It's a bit harsh [to lose], we didn't start the game well, we were sloppy and gave the ball away too many times to them," he told Sky Sports.

"Our line was good, our spirit was there in the second half but at the end of the day it's zero points that we take back to Birmingham and it's a little bit frustrating.

"We have got a winning mentality right now, we were unbeaten for 10 games and we tried to come here to take the three points, not even a draw. We tried at the end, they defended their goal really well and cleared their line a few times but we can't start games sloppy like that."

He added: "I didn't do a long ball for 40 minutes and I decided to go long and Casemiro did an amazing header and then [Marcus] Rashford is all of a sudden one vs one. I made a save and then it deflected off Moreno. Disappointed because we lost the game via a deflection.

"You can see how far we have come with this manager. It is a good time to be a Villa fan. I'm proud to wear this shirt. I'm all in every weekend and let's see if we can qualify in Europe in the next four games."