5 months ago
31
I REALLY don’t want to be writing these words.
Believe me, as a lifelong Birmingham City fan, I’d rather be singing “S**t on the Villa tonight” and watching on as the other club in my city suffers misfortune.
PAIt is painful to listen to Aston Villa supporters crowing so much with them third in the table, but their chirpiness is well-founded.
Because everything about Villa is thoroughly impressive right now — the team, the manager, the recruitment, the supporters.
Unai Emery prepares to welcome his old club Arsenal to Villa Park on the back of 14 straight home wins.
The biggest tribute you can play him is that nine of the 11 players who started Wednesday’s 1-0 victory over Manchester City were at the club under predecessor Steven Gerrard.
And that most of those players are unrecognisable, because they have a manager who is clearly able to improve a squad both individually and collectively.
Villa Park is one of my top five favourite stadiums — and not just because I scored both times I played there for Watford.
It is a proper, old-school ground with the crowd right on top of you, with history and tradition everywhere.
In all, I scored six times in five appearances against Villa — and we won four of those matches.
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Although Villa fans only ever want to talk about the one time I lost against them. They all knew that I was a Bluenose, so they’d give me extra stick and I’d give it back to them double whenever I scored, which was often!
But that’s the nature of a local rivalry and it’s one of those things which football thrives upon.
When I played there, and Villa were struggling, you knew you could turn the crowd against them.
It wasn’t even a case of having to go ahead. You could just press Villa and move them backwards and the crowd would get on their backs because they had no confidence in their defending.
That could not be any more different now — as Arsenal will discover tonight.
Every player and every supporter has faith in Emery’s defensive high line, as well as his World Cup-winning keeper Emi Martinez.
From the full-back Lucas Digne, to midfielder Douglas Luiz, to striker Ollie Watkins — and several other players — Spaniard Emery has just totally transformed Aston Villa.
Ollie was always a fine player but he used to be a winger and under previous managers, there was a tendency for him to work TOO hard, to go wide and make too many runs.
GettyNow he is conserving his energy and playing smart, which has a lot to with Emery’s influence.
Villa’s owners have money and ambition — but they are not scatter-gunning their cash like Chelsea, for instance.
They are signing the right players — such as centre-half Pau Torres, plus midfield freebie Youri Tielemans.
And it is obvious that Emery is strongly involved in a recruitment process headed by his former Sevilla ally Monchi.
Villa Park was bouncing when City were defeated there on Wednesday night and it could easily have been a far bigger win than the 1-0 they achieved.
So this evening’s match is fascinating.
Can Villa back up that result and be able to say they’ve beaten both of last season’s top two in the space of four days?
Arsenal are the last team to get anything from a league visit to Villa Park when they won 4-2 way back in February.
GettyHowever, even in that match, Villa led 2-1 and the scores were level going into injury time.
Both sides have improved since and a victory for either would be a real statement result.
At this point, if you asked most people to stake their life on one team to win the title, I reckon most would still opt for City — even from fourth place and six points adrift of the Gunners.
But if Arsenal win at Villa, then you really would fancy them to stay the distance this season in the Premier League.
And if Villa come out on top, you would have to say they’d look a great bet to reach the Champions League.
I can’t regard Emery’s team as genuine title contenders because their away form is too patchy.
And the possibility of Villa winning the league is one thing I just can’t bring myself to write about just yet.
I suppose I should say that it’s good for the city of Birmingham that Villa are doing so well and that I’m delighted for all those Villa fans I know.
But they’d know that I wouldn’t mean a word of it.
IT was an honour to get an award for Equality and Inclusion at the British Sports Awards this week.
There are way more fitting people for the award to go to but I am humbled to even be in the conversation.
It’s a long road but I feel we have a duty to try and help each other through education and communication.
Let’s all try to share a bit of positivity and live in a kinder world.
Bengali (BD) · 
English (US) ·