Crystal Palace away. Enjoy the day.
We come to the end of the season and what a fun-packed (mostly) and totally surprising (definitely) time it’s been. To be honest, I’m sure most of us would have been happy with top six and Europe again but instead well, stone me as the Greatest Ever Brummie Comedian said. Here we are in the Champions League and doing it so easily that there’s no last-day worry.
You’d have to go a long way back to remember the last time we had a final match where nothing was at stake because of how well we’ve done. There was Millwall in 2019 but that was in the Championship but it doesn’t count. Apart from that there’s been a few avoiding relegation with a match to spares, which is nothing to shout about, and a couple of top sixes when we should have done better.
But now the season is as good as over, Sky have got a dramatic last-day battle for sixth place to cover and we can go to Selhurst Park to be totally ignored and enjoy ourselves. well, as much as anyone can ever enjoy themselves in that unlovely part of London. Crystal Palace might just possibly be the most nondescript club in the league, any league. They’ve got a ground with no notable features, a new manager to replace a very old one and the most annoying supporters imaginable. If you want to bang a drum join a band.
Just for a change we’ve got another injury, as Nicolo Zaniolo’s Villa career ended by being subbed against Liverpool when he’d hardly had time to get warmed up. And just for a change it doesn’t matter. Ollie Watkins getting to twenty goals and Villa getting to seventy points would be a nice way to end the season, both are more than possible. Then all that remains is seeing who we get in the Champions League. Who’d a thought it? Will anyone be going to Weston after?
