As the mighty Gods of Aston prepare to vanquish West Ham.
If it’s Sunday it must be Villa Park, starting at 2.15 because there’s a match at midday and we can’t risk it not finishing before we start. And after remembering what it’s like to win in Europe we get the chance to do the same in the league with the arrival of the ‘Appy ‘Ammers.
The ‘Ammers ‘aven’t been all that ‘appy this season, what with losing all the time and having to put up with that ground they’re squatting in. They’ve still got the same manager they had when we beat them before Christmas He’s managed four of the bottom five in the league and been paid a fortune for doing so, which is some achievement. Almost as big an achievement, in fact, as being a Big Club when the highest you’ve finished is third.
The self-styled Academy of Football is more like one of those sink schools that only get known about when the head gets a knighthood for halving the murder rate. They’ve got Axel Disasi, who played for us a couple of times, plus a few others we’ll be linked with. We often get linked with West Ham players but as one of them was Nigel Reo-Coker, being linked is as much as should ever happen.
Also polluting the atmosphere are owners we’ve said a few things about in the past, and will no doubt do so in the future. They’re making the job easier by bringing in the next generation of spivs and chancers to take over from their parents. The one-woman justification to abolish the House of Lords is still there. In fact, the main reason James Corden supports them is that she makes him look vaguely human.
Our team is gradually getting fit again. John McGinn’s back and Youri Tielemans is on the way. Beating Lille also reminded us that we can win without conceding and didn’t look like it took too much out of the players. We beat them in December with the aid of a Morgan Rogers masterclass and we’ll beat them again.
