Villans are buzzing as the club climb into 6th for at least a moment. We may not be throwing around the M-word just yet, but it’s getting hard to keep it in the bottle. What a far cry from Gerrard’s disastrous and thankfully brief tenure at the helm.
The philosophy equals the points. The philosophy, the club mentality is the pathway. That’s Emery’s pre-match message: You establish the philosophy, and good things follow. That means he’s less concerned with Europe than he is with foundations. It’s also true that Unai will be looking at the run-in and thinking we should be in with a shout in all of them.
For Villa, so much of what we admire in other sides is the range of passing, control, decision-making, and awareness. Villa just don’t have enough of it. We also don’t have enough aggression, pace, and perhaps stamina.
May sound like a lot, but after some clear-outs that set the stage for the summer, I can see us getting four, maybe five players that could transform the squad.
With Sawiris and Edens in town to watch, Villa battled against Chelsea, and on another day would’ve had a goal or two for their troubles. Perhaps they wouldn’t have either made or been punished for the two decisive errors. Could’ve had a result. Alas, ’twas not be. But losing to Chelsea was never the marker by which Gerrard’s body of work is going to be judged.
A few weeks ago we were largely filled with optimism. Now it feels like the bottom has dropped out. And somewhat remarkably, Steven Gerrard, Christian Purslow’s man-crush, is already fighting for his job.
