'We didn't deserve to lose' - Marcelo Bielsa on reason for Leeds United's defeat to Aston Villa

The Whites head coach did give credit to Dean Smith's side for the way they defended in a second half dominated by Leeds, having taken a lead early in the game, but said the result was more to do with what the hosts did.

He was of the opinion that Leeds deserved more than a defeat to a goal that came from an unintentional pass, Ollie Watkins slipping as he shot and sending the ball to Anwar El Ghazi who found himself alone in front of Illan Meslier and scored.

"In the game I think we played better than the opponent," he said.

"We had many minutes of dominance, there were very few where we were dominated. In the first half we created more chances than they did, even if they scored the goal.

"The goal is a chance which wasn't intentional, a shot in which the player slips becomes a pass for a player who was not even asking for the ball.

"In general lines, the first half we should have been ahead given the chances we had but we didn't defend as well in the first half as we did in the second. In the second half we defended very well. We had the ball almost the whole of the second half but we created little danger.

"The ball always finished in the opponents' box, we didn't concede any counter attacks, we lost the ball in the final third. All the crosses, passes from out wide or in the centre were imprecise. In the set-pieces, which we had plenty of, we also didn't manage to unbalance in this way. To summarise, I think it was a game we didn't deserve to lose. I think a draw would have been something more logical and I think if there had to be a winner it should have been us."

When asked how much he would credit the result to Villa's resolute defending, Bielsa preferred to analyse his own side's performance.

"I'm going to respond in two ways," he said.

"If I had to evaluate how they defended I would say they defended very well. But I prefer to evaluate the way in which we attacked. We had many, many balls to attack them and with one thing that was positive - we only lost the ball in the final third. Having had so much of the ball at our disposal in the final third and what you need in that final third is precision in the pass. Whether that's from out wide into the box or outside the box into the box. It could be interpreted as they defended well our final pass, or you could say what I think, we lacked imagination and precision in attack."

Leeds went into the game with the chance to make it back-to-back wins for the fourth time this season. While they've caught the eye with their style of play and impressive results, particularly as a newly promoted team, consistency has been hard to come by. Bielsa again pointed to his analysis of Leeds' final-third play to explain why.

"I analyse every game that we play, today was an excellent opportunity to win two games in a row and we played a game where we didn't deserve to lose," said Bielsa.

"The key is to win games successively. When we don't win a game that allows us to build on a previous victory, I try to explain what impeded us from being able to do this, which is what I've done today."