They’re getting better and better.
Another big week begins with the Europa League tickets going out and there’s a bit of controversy over the criteria, which was never going to please everyone, and the allocation, which pleased no-one. We’re also playing in white, with a limited number of replica shirts on sale.
We’ve already won one trophy this year – the stadium tour has won the Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Award for the best thing to do in Birmingham.
In the week’s, if not the year’d or possibly decade’s least surprising news, Jhon Duran has been given indefinite time off from Zenit St Petersburg.
The shortlist for the Premier League Manager of the Year has been announced. The man who should win it isn’t in the top six.
We might be about to qualify for the Champions League and in a week’s time we’re in a European final but that’s nothing compared to the news that across the city they’ll be applying for planning permission in ten months time for the San Giro. How we can cope with that is beyond me.
Unai has a few words about Harvey Elliott’s loan deal and the words include “embarrassing for everyone involved,” which is about right. He also says Amadou Onana’s out for Friday night.
The World Cup squads are starting to be announced and France have got Lucas Digne in theirs.
Friday night comes round and we’re starting out with more or less a full-strength team, which could well also be the eleven who start the final. If they do, and they play anything like they did here, may as well hand over the trophy now because Villa Park has seen our worst performance of the season, if not longer, followed by two of the best. Liverpool are a bit shite but they were still above us in the league and winning would have seen them qualify for the Champions League. So would we but that went un-noticed.
Nothing much happened in the first half until it was almost over and then a glorious corner routine left Morgan Rogers in a ridiculous amount of space to give us the lead. We let Liverpool have the ball for a bit at the start of the second half and they equalised then hit the post but a Villaesque slip helped Ollie Watkins get another goal and we were back in control. Emiliano Buendia hit the post, Watkins scored again and it was party time.
There had to be a fourth and it had to be scored by John McGinn, which meant it was perhaps the best of the night because our captain, leader, legend doesn’t do tap-ins. This was in the final minute but there was still time for an evacuated away section, a few choruses predicting their manager’s employment prospects and a consolation second for the plucky but outplayed visitors. There was a lap of appreciation and children on the pitch way past their bedtime. That’s the top five sorted, now we can start to enjoy ourselves.
The rest of the weekend’s fixtures take place and quite frankly, who care although it looks like West Ham are going down, which would be good news if it didn’t mean Spurs aren’t. There was also, apparently, something called an FA Cup final. And this week’s random sale story is Youri Tielemans, to an unnamed club.
