Dave Woodhall comments on Villa’s defeat at Manchester City.
Back in the far-off days when Villa travelled to Greater Manchester more in hope than expectation we said that it wasn’t just eleven players you were up against, it was a referee, two assistants and a slow-running stopwatch as well. It would have seemed strange then but those were the good old days.Now you’re up against eleven players, the sovereign wealth of an oil state and the Byzantine rules of football finance as they now apply to any club who look like they might start threating the top clubs.
And if that wasn’t enough, Villa lined up at the Ethihad with Ollie Watkins injured, John McGinn suspended, Pau Torres, Youri Tielemans and Leon Bailey on the bench and Emiliano Martinez out at the last minute with a stomach bug that allegedly might, possibly, perhaps have been the reason for the surprise line-up. That was in addition to the usual injury list that we’ve got used to by now.
To their credit Villa matched Manchester City and their helpers in the early stages, only to go behind after eleven minutes. It seemed as though we were in for a long night, but to everyone’s surprise nine minutes later Jhon Duran played a one-two with Morgan Rogers and his low shot gave Villa the equaliser.
We more or less matched City after that as well until the closing seconds of the first half, when Nicolo Zaniolo got out of the way of a free-kick to give the home side a lead they scarely deserved. Even then Villa didn’t entirely lose hope and there were a couple of chances for an equaliser, particularly one from Douglas Luiz, but two goals in seven minutes, not helped by newly-arrived substitute Callum Chambers trying to imitate Torres, prompted what was in hindsight a forgeone conclusion from the off. We bring on squad players, they bring on Champions League standard.
Beaten but not disgraced was the final verdict, and if that sounds too much like a plucky lower leagues team beaten by one of the big boys in the FA Cup then there’s probably as big a gap in some way between the Championship and Villa as there is between us and Manchester City. And that’s not trying to find some consolation; it’s the truth and that’s the way it will remain while we have the ludicrous situation of two or three clubs being able to spend more or less what they like and anyone that tries to get close to them having to sell players to stay within the rules.
But if I did want to find some consolation from a night best forgotten it would include Robin Olsen doing as well as could have been hoped, Duran and Rogers continuing to improve and Omari Kellyman coming on and looking promising. The other bit of consolation would be trying to work out which league Manchester City would end up in with a 690 points deduction but there’s no point in bothering with that. As we learned with their Mancunian neighbours, rules are for other clubs.
