Some you win, some you play at Old Trafford.
The week begins with Uefa saying they’re not happy about the Premier League’s incoming finance rules. Neither are we but we can’t do anything about them either.
Then we get the “Emery to leave Villa” story, by pure coincidence in the week we play Manchester United. Who’d have thought something like that might happen, again?
The squad set off for Lille, and John McGinn’s with them, which is the best news for a good while. Tickets for the match arrive at the same time as a vague bit of advice for anyone travelling.
As for the match itself, the only surprising thing about the team selection was that there were no surprises. There was no Tammy Abraham or Ian Maastsen either, although McGinn was on the bench. There wasn’t a great amount for him to see for the first hour. Then a few minutes into the second hour there was a long ball up which was amazingly headed on by that aerial colossus Emiliano Buendia for ollie Watkins to score. There was a bit of defensive error involved but we deserve that.
This seemed to stir us intio life. Amadou Onana curled a shot against the woodwork, Watkins missed a one on one against the Lille keeper and in the final minutes Buendia acrobatically volleyed wide from 12 yards. We also had the welcome return of John McGinn, who looked keen to make up for lost time, and Tammy Abraham, who did okay. We won away, we didn’t concede and although we could have made certain with another couple of goals we couldn’t really argue. Bologna and Roma draw so we haven’t got much idea of who we’ll be playing next. May as well tempt fate.
The day after and footage emerges of our supporters being attacked by stewards and police before the match. Gabby Agbonlahor pitches into the French authorities with more enthusiasm than he ever played for us and the club say… absolutely nothing. Neither do the FA or Uefa.
Saturday comes and Chelsea lose. We’re living in an age when we want Newcastle to win; such is life.
Then the day later it’s off to Old Trafford. It’s getting beyond a joke to say how bad we are up there and how there’s always something that prevents us from getting a result. But in reality we don’t make it easy for ourselves. Watkins and Digne are playing again but at least John McGinn starts, as does Ross Barkley. Like Thursday night the first half isn’t all that much but unlike that one it isn’t us who score early in the second half.
That wasn’t unexpected but our response thanks to Barkley certainly was. We even looked like we might go on and win for a time but our hard-earned ability to throw away goals with stupid errors managed to undo us twice. They might have every rule made especially for their benefit but they didn’t really need them this time. At least Liverpool let in a last-minute equaliser. We’re living in an age when we want Spurs to get a result; such is life.
