Preview Percy got the right result again last Saturday – if not the actual score. Let’s see if he can do the hat-trick in this his look at Sunday’s trip to Villa...
Next up we return to Sunday action where we will be travelling up to Birmingham, where we will be hosted by Aston Villa. Kick-off is at 2:15pm with TV coverage coming courtesy of Sky. If youre coming in by train give yourself loads of time – there’s nothing in or out of Liverpool Street and the usual stuff all the way out to Shenfield applies. Check before you leave.
So Villa then. Between the beginning of December and end of February they sat in third place with them even being talked of in some – admittedly none too learned – quarters as potential champion contenders. Even during that period my conversations with Villa-supporting acquaintances suggested that the support were slightly bemused by their lofty position, the common comment being along the lines of “we keep winning without ever playing that well”.
Since then they have won just the one out of their last six – a 1-0 win at home over Brighton. Prior to that they drew 1-1 with Bournemouth. Since the Brighton win they drew 1-1 at home to Leeds before going on to lose their last three, 2-0 at Wolves, 4-1 at home to Chelsea and 3-1 away at Man Utd. All of that has seen them slip down to fourth place where they sit on 51 points from the 30 games played so far. That’s three points behind Man Utd and two ahead of Liverpool.
Unlike many they got a bit busy in the winter window. Daisy tells me that they brought in four in January. The first arrival was a 19 year-old winger by the name of Alysson, not to be confused with his similarly-named goalkeeper who feigns comas whenever a corner looks dangerous. Alysson – with a y – has made three appearances in the league since his arrival on a deal worth £8.7m plus add-ons. His only international experience has come in the form of three caps for the Brazilian Under 16 team.
The next arrival was Brian Madjo whose arrival from Metz for a reported fee of €12m has caused a bit of a stir in the corridors of power. Madjo you see is only 17 and international transfers of players under 18 years old are prohibited. “A-ha” said Villa “but Madjo was born in London so it’s not an International transfer, we’re just bringing him home”.
“Aha” said a FIFA official, taking time out from examining the contents of his latest brown envelope. “The lad has played three times for the full Luxembourg side so that’s a bit of a giveaway isn’t it?” The debate is ongoing but if FIFA win the argument it will be March 2027 before the player will get a game.
Talking of odd transfers they spent £18m to bring back Tammy Abraham, who had spent 2018/19 at Villa Park on loan. That wasn’t the odd bit. Abraham had been on loan all season from Roma at Besiktas. The Turkish outfit signed the player for €13m – around £11m of his majesty’s pounds sterling, the transfer being completed on January 26th.
On January 27th Besiktas sold him on for £18m of those same pounds, making a cool £7m or so profit out of a player they had owned for all of 24 hours. Putting one in mind of the month and a bit of pre-season that Clive Allen spent at Arsenal back in 1980 in the midst of his journey between QPR and Palace.
The final arrival was the loan return of Douglas Luiz whose sale to Juventus a while back was one of those odd deals that was required to balance the books. Keep an eye on those deals – I suspect we will be seeing a few of those ourselves in the near future.
A quick look now at the Wild & Wacky World Of Association Football, which has been dominated by the news that Malick Diouf’s Senegal have been stripped of the African Cuppasoup title they won in that quite frankly bonkers final earlier this year.
The whole tournament was blighted by accusations of refereeing bias towards hosts Morocco. Whether any of that was deliberate or not lord alone knows but the Moroccans certainly got the rub of the green throughout the competition. This one will run and run with the Court Of Arbitration for Sport becoming involved whilst Arsenal look nervously on at the concept of titles being removed from teams that don’t deserve them.
And so to us. A good point that and well deserved. The first half was an oddity in that both sides had scored from what was effectively their only effort on target. Man City upped the ante in the second half and it was a storming performance from all 11 on the pitch at any particular time.
The oft-maligned Mavropanos rightly received plaudits for his MotM performance and I would add a house point to the chart for whoever it was who took that remarkable photo of him blocking Harland’s volley with the ball caving in to hemisphere shape as it collided with the Greek defender’s face. The ball looked like the ones we used to play with as kids after a neighbour had attacked it with a knife after one too many wayward shot had gone over the garden fence.
On the injury front, the likeliest date for the return of Summerville is the FA Cup Quarter Final against his old club on Easter Sunday. However, as we have seen Nuno is not averse to suggesting that a player will be missing only for him to appear as if by magic a week before expected. I’m not saying that it will happen but don’t be too surprised if it does. Scarles is the other doubt with an unspecified knock
So to the prediction. This is winnable. The spirit in the squad seems strong and we’ve had some decent results of late. As with City last week, it’s also useful to be playing a team after a midweek European tie – though Villa’s tie against Lille (which has yet to start at the time of writing) is/was (depending on when you read this) at home.
I’ll take our current form against theirs at the moment and they were incredibly lucky to beat us at our place before Christmas so we owe them one. So having taken all that into account I think I will plump for an away win. So the £2.50 that was going to go on a copy of the African Cuppasoup so they can all have one will instead be going on a wager for us to prevail by a scoreline of two goals to one.
Enjoy the game!
When last we met at Villa Park: Drew 1-1 (Premier League January 2025)
Dreadful first 10-15 mins of the game as Ramsey gave them the lead and only a correctly wafted lino’s flag saved us from going two down. However the second half of the first half and most of the second half belonged to us. Emerson equalised and Paqueta had a tap-in ruled out – again correctly – as an offside Soucek pounced on a spilled shot.
Referee: Paul Tierney
Must have loved being the centre of attention last week when caught in the middle of Cjelsea’s pre-kick off huddle. Presumably awaiting instructions. Atwell’s on VAR if he can find the on switch.
Danger Man: Morgan Rogers
Joint top scorer with Watkins but appears to be in much better form.
Percy and Daisy’s Amazing Aston Villa Fact Of The Week Type Thing
A meteorite came to earth near Villa Park in 1881. After weeks of discussion it was agreed that the rock should be called “the Villa Meteorite. Meanwhile there were rumours that another meteorite landed not far from Tottenham’s Toilet Bowl stadium. Scientists followed the trail to close to the ground but have still been unable to locate “The Tottenham Meteorite” due to the fact that it went down quicker.
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