Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest closed out a satisfying and impressive week for Villa, having also dispatched Brighton and progressing to the FA Cup semifinals. One week, three matches, three victories, with the last being the hardest of the lot. The difficulty now goes up another level with PSG away.
It’s another European night at Villa Park, and this time it’s loser go home. You’d like to think that’ll be Club Brugge, but as Emery said, you never know. Villa’s propensity to ship a weak goal or two could very well rear its ugly head again and make things much more interesting than we’d like.
Creating and taking more chances—which, surprisingly, is the fundamental difference between winning and losing football—is what Villa’s season will come down to.
Bottom line is that he’s still immature, hasn’t taken to his responsibilities and the coaching, has been a constant distraction and was never going to stay at Villa. He’d have been gone in the summer or next January. The following summer at the latest. He and his camp were always agitating for a move, and it was pushing Emery to mess with his ideas to try and address Duran’s impatience.
Villa rescued a point at the Emirates Saturday evening in match that looked to be beyond redemption after Arsenal went 2-0 to the good. The outrage-despair machine is running at full capacity, and it’s fun to be part of the Gunners’ problems for a second year running.
