Villa beat Arsenal with Dave Woodhall finding many reasons to celebrate.
Some days are full of coincidences. For example, on Saturday morning I was reading Dennis Mortimer’s recollections of the game against Liverpool in January 1981, when as he rounded Ray Clemence to put Villa into a two goal lead he, the rest of the team and everyone inside Villa Park knew who was going to win the league that season.
The 96th minute on Saturday afternoon might not have been that defining, but it certainly showed us a few things, Before that we had a match that pitched the top team in the league against the side in the best form. Not that you’d have known judging by the pre-match build-up, which took the view that Arsenal were playing yet another collection of cannon fodder on their way to the title.
Villa’s team showed that this was no time for messing around and squad rotation – the best eleven available were starting and the next-best nine were on the bench. To no-one’s surprise most of Arsenal’s doubts were fit to play but they also had a couple out, which was mentioned a few times over the course of the afternoon and later
However many players plucky Arsenal were missing, Villa started well and Ollie Watkins could have scored in the early stages after making space for an opening. Arsenal then had a goal disallowed without bothering about VAR, which shows that there was no question over the decision, before a deep cross found Matty Cash unmarked and Villa were in the lead.
The second half started with Arsenal on top and some equally slack marking gave them an equaliser. The world’s number one proved it again with a full-length save before the substitutes began to have an effect, Donyell Malen could have done better with his chance before, with the game winding down, one of those significant moments happened. One-one against the league leaders and Unai brought on an attacking player, Emiliano Buendia, for the right-back Cash.
Deep into stoppage time, when the draw that just about everyone would have settled for before kick-off was looking certain, Villa went on the attack and with the fifth attempt on goal Buendia scored the winner. He raced over to the bench, the bench raced onto the pitch to meet him and Villa had got their most memorable victory for a long, long time.
Of course, the result is nowhere as important as that win against Liverpool almost 45 years ago. But as we said after the win at Brighton in midweek, Villa are now three points behind the league leaders, We’re the form team and we’ve proved that we can beat anyone in the country.
And while we’re on the subject of coincidences, I happened to be in a pub after the match when in walked Roger, who I haven’t seen for a few years. He doesn’t get to many games now, which is understandable as he’s 89 and lives in the south of France. He was having an enjoyable day and it was probably a bit better than the one newly-arrived fifth generation of Villa supporters in my family, young Jack, was enduring. Two days old and he might not know it yet but he’s one of us for life. Watching the Villa will have its ups and downs but afternoons like this will make it all worthwhile.
