Seven lively days of fun-filled merriment, as always.
The week starts off well for Matty Cash, who’s got a new contract until 2029 and according to Damian Vidagany it’s the first of many. It’s not as good for Emiliano Buendia, as photos of him limping away from Villa Park on crutches are doing the rounds.
The latest news on That Game is that a “family-friendly, peaceful national rally” is taking place on Aston Park for two hours before kick-off. It gets better. Another report on the lead-up to the match says that Villa have been “tarnished” by the ban, but it’s in the Daily Telegraph so it doesn’t count.
Then the Board of Deputies of British Jews say they’ve offered to distribute 500 tickets to British Jewish football supporters and aren’t happy that their kind offer has been turned down. The tightest selling conditions and probably the tightest security there’s ever been for a match at Villa Park and we’re the bad guys for not letting 500 assorted, undocumented people into the ground. I sometimes get the impression that a lot of the people talking about this match don’t know all that much about football.
The moved-for-TV fixture changes have been made and all four of our Winterval matches have been moved. There’s one Boxing Day game in the Premier League and it’s an eight o’clock kick-off. Just because we’ve had to get used to it doesn’t mean it’s right.
Damian makes his second pronouncement of the week in an interview with Radio WM, who aren’t saying much about Wolves lately for some reason. Amongst other things Jacob Ramsey had been messing around over a new contract for twelve months, he hadn’t signed so off he went.
Youri Tielemans will be back in training next week according to Unai in his pre-match press conference, where he also says that Emiliano Buendia will only be out for a few more days, which is better than expected.
As for the match, it could have been better. Liverpool had their usual full-on media onslaught before kick-off and had managed to bring back doubtful players, surprisingly. It didn’t seem to matter too much from the start, when Morgan Rodgers hit the post then Matty Cash’s deflected shot was pushed onto the bar. We looked capable of finishing the job and there were definite Kopite rumbling as the first-half stoppage board went up with the home side not looking much like scoring. Then a few seconds later Emiliano Martinez made a hash of a clearance and we were a goal down.
After that the second half went much the same as expected, to the barely-disguised joy of the TV commentators. We had a few opportunities and substitute Donyell Malen went close but another bit of bad distribution from Pau Torres and that was another goal down. After that we didn’t look like scoring and to end the day on another low Tyrone Mings went off in stoppage time with a pulled hamstring. That’ll be another player out for another month. The winning streak’s gone; time to start another.
