You could say Aston Villa have reached core meltdown this week. While, it’s not the first time they have been beaten at home by Liverpool, the eleven players might as well have planted a white flag in the centre circle before kick-off and driven off home in their flash cars (see player’s instagram pictures).
Early doors in the weekend’s home game against Liverpool, I commented to a friend on the difference of intensity in Leicester’s closing down of Arsenal players in the day’s earlier fixture compared to Villa’s lacklustre and casual zonal marking against Liverpool. The warning signs were there, throw in some Sunday League defending and the 6-0 was no surprise.
The players let themselves down, Garde let himself down (maybe get your team to press the opposition, if they have decent players like Liverpool do?) and Villa’s relegation was as good as rubber-stamped.
Liverpool had scored five when they visited Norwich, the difference though was Norwich scored four in reply and should have got something from the game.
Villa’s recent finding of some semblance of form against average teams has been too little, too late. Thus they needed to step up against the bigger teams. You only have to see what Sunderland did to Manchester United to see the level of what Villa needed to achieve on Sunday.
“Randy Lerner what a wanker, what a wanker”, rang out from the Holte End several times during the Liverpool game as the goals rattled in. The fans know who is ultimately responsible for the club’s downfall, but the Villa owner now sits in an ivory tower in America having relinquished responsibility to Hollis and Fox.
During the game, several Villa fans were thrown out with stewards declaring marshall law on any supporter using Tom Fox’s name in vain. The Villa CEO has employed personal security guards, as MOMS first reported at the AVST AGM (while he lays off other staff). This is a sad state of affairs and there was no surprise when an ex-Villa worker broke her silence on the toxic atmosphere at the club.
While as supporters we plan to get our club back, here’s five reasons to be cheerful as Aston Villa fans…
3. There’s Worse Scorelines
You know, despite Villa’s 6-0 tonking being the worst home result in 80+ years (throw it on the pile of other sh*te Villa Park records in recent seasons), at least it’s not as bad as a game that took place in Birmingham on Tuesday, 21 March 2006, the one that finished Birmingham City 0 Liverpool 7.
Or, how about the result in Birmingham on October 25th 2014 that finished Birmingham City 0 Bournemouth 8.
Be thankful that our neighbours always make sure they can’t take the pi** 100%. Still, both clubs have experienced hard times and really it shouldn’t be like that in the city’s second city. The new Grand Central should be welcoming fans of Premier League clubs to play both clubs in the coming seasons.
The second city derby should be in the top division.
so what is the plan you refer to? Its time to let us know
trevor fisher