> **Villa lose at Brentford in the League Cup as Dave Woodhall watches.**
**There are two ways of looking at the League Cup. The first is to say that it’s an anachronism in the modern game with most of the top teams not bothered and the smaller clubs denied big crowds because the top teams aren’t bothered. The other way is to regard it as the easiest route to winning a trophy so a few run-outs against an assortment of reserves and Academy players should put you right in with a chance of glory. Guess which way Villa look at it.**
Not that it makes much difference where Villa are concerned because whichever way we look at it, our League Cup adventures invariably end before the clocks go back. Every few years we have a bit of a run that inevitably ends in an embarrassing defeat, but it’s usually the option that saves supporter having to buy tickets and the club from paying win bonuses.
I don’t suppose he’d admit it but I don’t think Unai Emery would ever regard the competition as anything other than a distraction. He’s never seemed that bothered about losing and that attitude seems to be reflected in the players. He’ll pick a side that looks good enough to beat whoever we might be playing but few of them every come off the pitch looking like they’ve given their all.
Tuesday night at Brentford as a case in point, another of the litany of Villa going out of this competition without even a whimper. There were the usual number of players rested, although with greater squad sizes the team that started the game was a lot better than some of the selections we’ve witnessed previously. Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott were starting, as were the elusive Evann Guessand and Donyell Malen. With Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers on the bench and the welcome sight of Boubacar Kamara keeping them company, Villa certainly seemed to have more than enough to deal with whatever team Brentford came up with.
To be fair to them it was a much better performance than the one endured here a couple of weeks agio, although that’s a particularly low bar. There wasn’t much to talk about but with a couple of minutes before the break the sort of defensive mistake we’ve witnessed regularly gave Elliott the opportunity to score his first Villa goal, even if it did need a bit of help from the Brentford keeper. Going in at half-time with that bit of good fortune should have given Villa a boost but they were unable to make much more impression and therew as yet another and largely expected equaliser.
Watkins and Rogers came on midway through the second half, followed by Kamara and Emiliano Buendia for the last fifteen, in which Villa played some of their best football and could have got a couple of goals, although the closest they came was when Sancho hit the post. There’s no extra time now, probably because someone, somwhere will make more money without and the big clubs are made a bit happier. We lost the penalty shootout. It was always going to happen; Unai hid his disappointment well.
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