Simply the most breathtaking day at Villa Park since the Arsenal last minute winner in December, absolute bedlam everywhere and I genuinely had to calm down for a few minutes after it because I seriously felt dizzy after celebrating it. As you all know, I generally make every single game, and if you’ve been on away days (or even if you have just watched celebrations) then you will know that goals at home are celebrating a lot less than goals away. Well – I celebrated the goal today like it was an away day, I seriously celebrated it more than the Arsenal goal, I think mainly because the Sunderland fans had got under my skin too much after they had just dismantled us for two minutes and scored two goals.
I think it goes completely without saying that, despite the outstanding efforts of our lads to recover the victory, them two goals for the Mackems should never have occured, and it very nearly cost us a very comfortable position, which we are now obviously in. Mathematically, we just need to win one more game and Chelsea need to lose one more in order to secure Champions League next season. In theory, with Chelsea playing midweek due to their upcoming FA Cup semi-final, and Villa playing at 1230 next week, Champions League could be mathematically secured before the 1500 kick-offs next weekend, which would be ideal.
In terms of how we played, I thought we played OK. We got off the mark quickly, which normally serves as a huge advantage in home matches, as opposed to when we go the first half without scoring – which usually ends in disaster. We were pegged back by a great equaliser, and then seemed like we couldn’t break them down, but a great move saw Ian Maatsen assist Watkins for his second headed goal of the game (I wonder what the odds for that would’ve been). The second half also started quickly, with a great chip through ball from Watkins to Rogers which, arguably, saw us cruising at 3-1 up with most folk presuming that the game was over. Well, I suppose it’s never over until it’s over and Sunderland did absolutely superb to capitalise on Sancho’s two vile errors, which appear to have severely damaged his reputation at this club unfortunately. 3-3. Whilst I still don’t back a single player in our squad to finish any of Sunderland’s two comeback goals, it was a great goal by Abraham to rescue the victory, and he for sure owes Abraham and Martinez a pint, for that goal and that superb save which led to the goal and denied Sunderland the victory.
Overall, a very great weekend, apart from Liverpool scoring. City winning pleased me very much, not related to Villa but I do hope that Arsenal bottle it. As for us, we do not have long to go and do not have much to do, we just need to get over the line now. UTV
Alfie
Spot on. All around me at the back of the Holte were going mental, when the fourth goal went in. That feeling from complete and utter despair and disbelief to pure relief and utter joy, in what felt like moments, was incredible.
And now, let’s dial in and secure Champions League and then win the Europa. Although I want us to get at least 4th. UEFA rules mean if we finish 5th and win the Europa, a 6th team go into then champions League. If 4th, then only top
5. I really want Chelsea to get Conference League. It means UEFA SCR rules bite them and minimal income from Europe. I have been reading that financially they are in danger of getting into a total financial mess. Let’s hope! That and Spurs being relegated would be superb.
Brilliant. Do you have a season ticket? My season ticket is in the upper north stand.
Ideally we just get Champs League and then if other teams fall they fall, I just want us to do it.
Absolutely brilliant that today UTMV
Yep.
I think you witnessed Sancho try and gift them the game with two key turnovers that led to goals for Sunderland. Expensive liability. Prove me wrong or leave our club
Jadon Shitcho.
Funny story for you all:
I was looking back on some archives on Saturday night and found the article for the game in 2019 where we were 0-3 down to Sheffield U and drew 3-3. Everyone was complaining and then next thing you knew we were the best team in the world!
Funny thing is I did the exact same thing yesterday before we got the winner at the end… very fickle and very ironic 🤣
Interesting comments by Emery after the game. He cut short a journo who was blaming the two goals on Sancho saying it wasn’t his fault and the situations could have been avoided if we passed correctly. He then said ‘mistakes are not made by the players, they’re made by me’.
His other comment was ‘we lost our minds in those two minutes’. If you watch the replays you can see that – particularly for their equalising goal and the chance that Martinez saved – our defence had completely lost the plot, out of position leaving Sunderland players free to run through three static defenders.
Whilst Sancho losing the ball clearly didn’t help we should never have conceded that equaliser if the defence had been doing their job properly.
Anyway great win but strangely feel deflated today – maybe the excess of red wine?
Champions League place is now ours to lose – or should I say win😄
Emery. Class, as usual.
Peter I totally agree that Sancho isn’t worth the wages. He’s had a few half decent cameos, but we cannot afford to be splashing our money we can’t spend!
Apparently Sancho was devastated at the final whistle. Emery was right, we were an utter mess in those final minutes position wise. We were brilliant for the majority of the match.
Their 2 late goals were magnificent and boy did Martinez save us!!!! A stunning save and again he gave us 3 points. Tammy’s winner from a superb Digne cross left me in shock! Amazing game.
This, from a Sunderland fan is well worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMd9rf5mB4M
Will be watching the West Ham game for a Spuds laugh tonight, and Chelsea hopefully losing midweek!!! An exciting end to the season.
Oh, and did anyone mention we’re in the semis- of the UEFA Cup??? 🙂
Replacing McGinn with Sancho is like replacing a Jaguar E Type firing on all cylinders with a busted Ford Capri. You will regret it.
Or if you prefer, replacing Kelly Brook with Katie Price. You will regret it.
You get the idea…
There is a much better reason to watch West Ham beat Crystal Palace tonight in that it would keep Forest in a relegation position. Its funny that when your team is playing well, and in contention, your interest is so much broader.
Great thinking. I’d much rather watch it for that rather than for Spurs going down. I don’t care whether they do or don’t, nothing will change. They’ll still get more media attention than most clubs in England and will still make plenty of money through events outside of football.
Dingles down!
Brighton in good form and will go above Chelsea this evening if Chelsea manage to lose a fifth on the trot…
🚨 #AVFC will close the North Stand for the entirety of next season in order to accelerate plans to increase Villa Park’s capacity to over 50,000 by the start of the 2027/28 season.
Villa Park’s capacity next season is expected to be roughly 37,000.
[John Townley]
My Season Ticket is in there.
I’m glad Emery defended Sancho. Yes he lost the ball twice leading to goals. He wasn’t solely at fault The first one Konsa made a forward run past him as that happened and was out of position. He should have stayed where he was.
McGinn also lost possessIon in a dangerous area but Martinez bailed him out.
The second loss of possession by Sancho we had no defensive mid in place, Konsa saw the danger and initially moved towards the forward as he made his run and then stopped.
We lost our shape and lost control of a game that we were absolutely in charge of and could have conceded a fourth with Konsa again partly reponsible and no defensive mid cover.
I get why most here don’t want Sancho as we haven’t seen enough to warrant the cost of transfer and ongoing costs but I guess that’s down to Emery and the money men.
Thing is, we have had Bailey, Sancho, Guessand and Diaby playing on the right. They have all failed to deliver enough going forward (consistently) and have been a liability defensively.
We could really do with fixing this position with a Jarrod Bowen type player
Harry Wilson can play on the right…
Option to pause your season ticket for the season and have priority to purchase in the North Stand when it’s done up. On top of that, you keep your 1,000 away points that comes from your season ticket whether you pause or not.
That’s seriously tempting to save a couple grand across the four of us for a year.
On the OS with all the details and Q and A’s which seems to cover most of the likely questions from fans and ST’s.
Also received notification on my phone through the App.
I see Championship clubs have rejected VAR for next season – think that says it all.
Time for the EPL to dump it as well so we can go back to the spontaneous enjoyment of football and the honest debate about referees and controversial decisions 😂😂
Can’t see VAR ever going now Hitch.
All they have to do is stop drawing lines and trying to disallow goals. Pedro at Villa Park and Watkins a prime example. You can’t deny one then give the other. It’s totally f***** up. Just allow some human tolerance for offside decisions. A toe or an elbow is not offside. It’s a goal. For any team. That’s all they need to do.
They can’t get rid of it now because referees are so dumbed down after 7 years of it, it will be absolute carnage. Like I said, just allow good goals and stop drawing lines – if the human eye can’t see it on a screen or in slow-mo, it’s a goal. Not difficult.
What I don’t get is the semi-automated photos. They’re just not the same as what’s actually happened. Liverpool v Fulham months ago was the worst for it.
Chelsea are a joke… no way they get near us.
Did you see the vomit inducing video Chelsea did when Casaido signed the contract extension? All soft piano crap!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The Yanks just don’t get footy, do they…
They could be in the bottom half of the table soon…I know, I know…
Lewandowski out of contract in the summer. Just saying.
No thanks. Wages and age! Our squad needs some youth.
Brighton 2-0 up 😂😂😂😂😂
Defo worth a go.
Agree in general, Holte. But we’re talking absolute elite here. United did it with Zlatan. His profile alone would lift the club to new levels of global exposure and I believe he would also help raise the bar in the dressing room; the players wouldn’t be in awe, as such, but there would definitely be a ‘wow’ factor. I don’t know about his wages, but if I was Emery, I’d be having a chat with the recruitment team about making contact. One year with an option of a second. With Champions League (hopefully) on the horizon, these are the types of players and characters you need to be adding, albeit short term.
Chelsea no longer a threat but what about Brighton?
Win on Saturday and we’re a whisker away!
I thought it was a done deal if we win on Saturday?
The end for LinkedIn Liam??? Nice chap, but well out of his depth.
Defo won’t be their manager next season.
It was inevitable.
We should be aiming to finish fourth to block sixth place from getting Champions League.
Ignore me BFR. I completely forgot about teams below Chelsea. But it is effectively a done deal, just not mathematically.
Aston Villa facing Premier League scrutiny over £55m Warehouse sale https://share.google/6CtHwUKorx7ua9jnU
Another unjust shafting incoming. 🤬🤬🤬 Meanwhile, we wait for a verdict on Citeh. And wait….and wait…
Corrupt joke league. Villa should be praised for initiatives like this.
Hitch, what’s wrong with this accounting wise? Or is just the PL making the rules up to suit their bent agenda?
I say (yet) again. Will someone, please, file a law suit against these pricks and give them something to think about?
Classic as soon as we find a way to make money !
Joke.
My take on it is that the deal is between two companies with the same ownership structure so not an ‘arms length’ deal were the price is set by the market as when, for instance you put your house up for sale.
Using the same analogy if you own two companies and sell the house from one to the other the two companies agree the price which may be inflated above market value to improve the profits of the selling company and reduce the profits of the buyer.
Tbf to the EPL trades of this nature are always subject to scrutiny over whether the sale price is inflated to create ‘artificial’ profit. One high profile example was Derby selling the ground to itself at an inflated price and then leasing it back at a below market arrangement.
I don’t believe the deal itself can be discounted – although EUFA have disregarded profits made by teams selling their women’s teams to related companies and this has now been adopted by tye EPL.
The article makes it clear that Villa took external advice in establishing the market value so the EPL would either have to disallow it for PSR or prove a lower market value.
What pisses me off around EPL and EUFA financial regulations is that they’re skewed in favour of the ‘established elite’ and to my mind are both a restriction on trading and unfair. Unfortunately they get round this by licensing clubs to play in their competitions, a condition of which is agreement to abide by the financial regulations.
Sorry for the long post – hope it’s helpful.
PS – I’m not an expert on this, just a geeky interest 😂 OLL is the financial expert – not heard from him in some time?
By the way, since beating us at VP, Chelsea have not scored a single league goal in 5 consecutive defeats. How did they beat us? See offside decisions before half time.
No clue. It happens mate. I’ve just said this to another fan on X – Brighton haven’t lost away since they lost to us. Same sort of thing, it just happens.
Similar to how United lost 1 in 10 or something and it was to us in December.
This is a crazy Premiership this year. The first team relegated Wolves have a record of 2 wins 1 draw and 3 losses just as we do in our last 6 games. The teams in 7th, 8th and 9th have managed just 4 wins between them in their last 18 matches. People are right about Brighton, just 4 points dropped from a possible 18 in their last 6 games. It ain’t over till its over
Yeah I didn’t even think Brighton were that good anymore, turns out I’ve got that wrong.
I love Vidagany’s transfer philosophy – he’s saying don’t expect Villa to splash the cash on big name stars in the summer. The culture of the club is the most important aspect of developing the future.
We should look to develop and make the stars ourselves – from his own experience bringing in expensive players can upset the balance of the side and the team ethic whist bringing in players that buy into the philosophy and are willing to learn and develop is a better approach (something evidenced h Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth).
So no to Lewandowski from me but I’d take Rashford who demonstrated humility and a team ethic last season.