Well, one of our statistically worst games of the season is round the corner against our local rivals Wolves in the midst of our worst run of performances since the opening four games of the season, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of Villa fans will be slightly nervous going into this game.
The away end at Molineux, which I can imagine I will make my way to by train, is one of the most difficult away stands to generate an atmosphere in due to it being spread out across the length of the pitch, and with Wolves having just put a dent in Arsenal’s title hopes and celebrating it like they’ve just survived in the Premiership, they will undoubtedly be looking to dent our hopes of finishing in a Champions League spot too. There is a potential for a huge banana skin here, as there always is, but I stand by the fact that regardless of other results, we cannot call ourselves a serious side if we cannot take six points off the current worst side in Premiership history, because they really are that bad.
Statistics coming into this match are that Villa have won three of our last four matches against Wolves, however we have not beaten them at Molineux with fans in the stadium since 2012, and even without fans it was still back in 2020 courtesy of a last minute Anwar El-Ghazi penalty, remember that?
Team news is looking pretty standard, with the entirety of our starting midfield, including the goalscorer in the reverse fixture (Kamara) out, as well as McGinn and Tielemans sidelined for the time being. I heard a good viewpoint following the Leeds game, that McGinn will be the only one of the mentioned that will look at that game and itch to be back to fitness. The rest, I am convinced would move away to a bigger club.
I think this fixture will all come down to whether the lads on the pitch will acclimatise to the pressure we are always put under at the Custard Bowl, or will Wolves get one over us and avoid becoming the worst ever Premier League team, as a win will move them to 12 points I believe.
I cannot really predict this one, but I just know that I cannot see us winning. I will be be nice and go 1-1, but I’d love to be proven wrong at a ground Emery has never won at with Villa.
UTV!
Happy Saturday with no Villa game to depress your weekend! 😃
Have a great weekend all.
https://youtube.com/shorts/y2kAUy6hmHE?si=tzsn5gBFg_hNI_Dm
Wharton and Gibbs-White. Dream future midfield. Gibbs-White has everything the skipper gives, while Wharton’s passing is the same level as Tielemans, dare I say better. If Rogers goes, these two should be first in. Ideal players for Villa, in my opinion.
Seems Arsenal have to sell one of their first team players to balance the books this summer.
It seems only Citeh, ManUre and Chel$ea are exempt.
Boohoo! Poor them!
You could pick anyone of their regular bench warmers and it would improve our starting 11 .
I know we shouldn’t believe rumours but the ‘probability’ of Emery leaving in the summer is doing the rounds again.
Reported that he’s becoming increasingly frustrated by the financial squeeze being put on the club by the EPL and UEFA which I can well understand. I think that likelihood will increase if we fail to qualify for the CL whether that’s through our league position or wining the Europa League.
For either to happen our form needs to improve and quickly.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens Hitch, football going through a bad time with the rule it’s destroying the game. A club that’s solvent against a club that’s not and owes millions gets away with in my mind fiddling the fans. Hitch we’ve seen the best days when the game was football, not run by high flying money searching crooks. Sorry to say.
You shouldn’t apologise Bill – you’re right and even our owners have said football has become all about ‘bean counters’ – and it wasn’t said in a positive way either!
As you say – Villa solvent with very little debt and two billionaire, highly respected and successful businessmen as owners that have continually invested their own money in the club – are treated with contempt by regulators who appear to have little or no understanding of true financial risk. Their primary objective appears to be to appease the ‘old money’ in the game – the likes of ‘Pool, Manure, Chelski, Madrid etc. – supported by the very dubious behaviour of VAR.
Chelski lost £355m in one season but no doubt they’ll be able to spend another £2 -£300m in fees through a lot of dodgy accounting.
I venture to suggest that a majority of fans are fed up with what’s happening in football and that can only mean – eventually – with the never ending increase in ridiculous transfer fees, wages, prices, streaming costs etc. a complete financial collapse across the whole game.
What we’re seeing is surely unsustainable in the medium to long term and when the correction comes it will be brutal, particularly for clubs with major debt.
Well maybe rather than playing boring tikka takka boring football from the back we should try the wrexham model and play blood and thunder football from start to finish
With better players wrexham would of beat Chelsea plain and simple
Interesting comment, that.
I’d venture that if they hadn’t gone down to 10, they might have actually beaten them.
I watched Vale earlier and what I saw was an inferior team.
But they worked harder and just wanted it more, hence they won.
Of course, you couldn’t possibly maintain that through a season, but it does show, desire and hence mentality goes a long way.
Unfortunately, we seriously lack both, imo.